Common Knowledge Base Research Articles

Integrating across knowledge systems to drive action on chronic biological invasions

Designing and implementing long-term management strategies for chronic biological invasions is amongst the most vexing ecological research problems. Two key challenges to resolving this problem are: (a) integrating science-based and values-based (e.g. spiritual, cultural, economic and ethical) knowledge sources and (b) developing durable knowledge generation and curation platforms to co-ordinate long-term research efforts. We begin by identifying knowledge sources (stakeholder values, forecasts of invader spread and impacts, management technologies and operational logistics) to guide the high-level actions (governance framework design, selection of ethical management technologies, definition of long-term objectives, design of management strategies and operational plans implementing strategies) required for management of chronic invasions. We use exotic conifer invasions in New Zealand as an example. Next, we propose a transdisciplinary knowledge ecology framework where each knowledge source is represented by a separate knowledge generation and curation platform (i.e. knowledge ecosystem) and linked through high-level actions. We detail the structure and function of a single knowledge ecosystem (forecasting spread and impacts), and document two case studies to illustrate how knowledge ecosystems might (a) increase participation of individual researchers within long-term research efforts, and (b) facilitate inclusion of non-researchers in developing a common knowledge base. Finally, we propose a set of guidelines for combining science-based and values-based reasoning in decision-making via localised governance structures. We suggest that viewing knowledge ecologies as an integrated collection of distinct knowledge ecosystems offers a promising approach for identifying, generating, curating and integrating the knowledge sources needed to improve management of chronic biological invasions.

Coopetition for innovation in R&D consortia: Moderating roles of size disparity and formal interaction

Increasingly, firms are forming alliances to engage in cooperative innovation activities with their competitors. Participating firms in an R&D consortium can not only obtain the general benefits from cooperation, but also further promote communication and mutual learning due to the common knowledge base with their competitors in the consortium. However, R&D consortium as a typical cooperative innovation alliance has downsides too - competition in a cooperative consortium provides member firms with not only benefits, but also challenges. The opportunistic nature of competition poses a dilemma for member firms when they decide how much effort should be committed to cooperative R&D activities. This study aims to investigate the benefits and costs of competition for firm innovation in cooperative R&D consortia. The study will also identify the boundary conditions to amplify the advantages of competition in terms of the network properties of consortia. The study employs data from 649 firms in 50 Japanese R&D consortia to analyze the curvilinear relationship between the intensity of competition and firm innovation in a cooperative consortium. It was found that a focal firm with a moderate level of competition will have better innovation performance compared to those with either a low or high level of competition. Moreover, it investigates the moderating roles of the firms’ size disparity of R&D consortia and the consortium-organized interaction. The results indicate that the R&D consortium with a low size disparity amplifies the linear effect of the competition on cooperative innovation, which can help the focal firm achieve more gains from cooperative R&D. The consortium-organized interaction strengthens the curvilinear effect of the competition intensity on innovation. This study, using resource dependence theory and social network lenses, extends our understanding of the role of coopetition in firm innovation performance by filling the gap in when and to what extent the intensity of competition matters in multiparty cooperative R&D consortia. It also provides new evidence on the boundary conditions of R&D consortia managing the tension.

Methodology for studying human attitudes and behaviour to cow-calf contact systems.

This position paper describes a common stand on methodology of human attitudes and behaviour that is suitable to use in studies regarding cow-calf contact (CCC) in dairy production, in order to create a common knowledge base and foundation for future recommendations of CCC systems. We describe how different quantitative and qualitative methods can be used to study human attitudes to CCC as well as farmer or consumer behaviour. We aim to contribute to a better understanding of the available methods, and hope that this paper can be used as a guideline for future studies in this area.

The battle of superheroes: the rise of the knowledge platform strategy in the movie industry

PurposeOver the past years – because of the huge impact of companies such as Airbnb and Uber – the concept of the platform became extremely popular in the business world. Still, the concept of the platform has been evolving for a long time in the management field, from internal platforms (like the famous case of Sony Walkman) to industry-wide platforms (like the case of computers with external software developers), up to transaction and two or multi-sided platforms (such as Airbnb and all the companies with a similar business model). Platforms are often considered disruptors in several industries, from accommodations to mobility to entertainment. Still, the disruptors in the creative world usually deal with the way in which they distribute content (Netflix or Spotify), rather than with the content itself. The purpose of this paper is to understand if and how platforms trategies can also be used in the creative industries.Design/methodology/approachThis paper digs into the movie industry, studying the three most successful Superheroes sagas of the past two decades as follows: the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), DC Comics and X-Men using a narrative approach. The three sagas are studied through network analysis to understand their “platform approach”.FindingsThe results show how platform strategies are relevant also in creative industries – defining the concept of “knowledge platform strategy” – and how they have a significant impact in terms of market performance. The MCU builds on a common knowledge through the various movies that enable the chance to rely on many of the platforms’ characteristics emerging from the literature.Research limitations/implicationsThis research extends the concept of “platforms,” relying on the three kinds of platform defined in the managerial literature and introducing the “knowledge platform strategy” for creative industries. The main contribution is related to the extension of platforms in research fields where it has not been exploited. This opens up avenues for research both from a knowledge platform and creative industries perspectives.Practical implicationsManagers, working not only in creative industries but also in industries where a common knowledge basis may be leveraged to develop new products over time, may use the concept of “knowledge platform strategy” to rethink the new development process or knowledge management from a customer perspective.Originality/valueThis study explores a mature and relevant concept – the platforms – in a new filed, the creative industries using the case of Superheroes sagas, proposing a new perspective to explain the success of MCU while proposing a new platform strategy.

Smart Cities on the Agenda of Integration Associations

Introduction.The article gives an overviewofintegrationassociations’policyforsmartcitydevelopment.Theexistingratesofurbanizationandthegrowthoftheeconomicweightofcitiesgiverisetonewchallenges and opportunities, which for the developed integration associations can no longer be considered exclusively at local or national levels. Consequently, there is a growing demand from integration associations for the formation of common approaches to smart city management. The authors examine the efforts of the European Union and the Association of South East Asian Nations undertaken for the development of smart cities and give recommendations for the Eurasian Economic Union.Materialsandmethods.The methodologi­cal basis of the study includes the following gen­eral scientific methods of cognition of processes and phenomena: an analytical approach, qualitative analysis and comparative analysis. The examined materials include official documents of integration associations,analyticalreportsofinternationalorganizationsandstudiesofdomesticandforeignscientists.Thechoiceoftheresearchtopicisjustifiedbytheurbanizationrateswiththeincreasingimportanceofpublicmanagementqualityanddraftingofa long-term agenda for the development of agglomerations. Smart cities become interested in managerial cooperation with other cities, harmonization of approaches and exchange of best practices. The universal theory of smart cities is to yet formed, but in real life, efforts are already being made to develop a common knowledge and experience base: smart cities create platforms for interaction, sign agreements, draw ratings and develop management and technical standards. Some integration groups already began to single out smart cities as a separate area of their activity. We can forecast that the topic of smart cities will become the key one for all integration associations, including EAEU. For Russia, as for a country that is currently developing its own standards for managing smart cities, this issue is of fundamental importance: cooperation with the countries of the Union can serve as an additional source of knowledge and experience and will create strategic opportunities and advantages for the domestic IT industry.Results.TheEuropeanUnionandtheAssociationofSouthEastAsianNationswerethefirsttoputtheissueofsmartcitydevelopmentontheagenda.Meanwhile,theseorganizationshavetakentwodifferentpaths:theEUissimultaneouslyworkingona whole set of initiatives to develop common approaches and standards for smart city approaches and standards. ASEAN is so far limited to having a platform for financial and informational assistance to particular cities.Discussionand conclusions.Withinthe formation of the common digital space for the EAEU, the issue of joint development of smart cities should be included into the integration agenda. The experience of the EU and ASEAN may be useful for the Eurasian Economic Union, whose interest in smart cities is just beginning to emerge. The simultaneous creation of a platform of smart cities and the development of common standards could become a positive step in this field.

Analyzing reputation of Swiss universities on Twitter–The role of stakeholders, content and sources

PurposeThis study investigated the reputation of Swiss universities on Twitter. It gives detailed insights on how the reputation of universities was constituted in a digitized media environment.Design/methodology/approachThe reputation of universities was conceptualized as a multidimensional construct with an overarching scientific and corporate dimension. It was measured for academic and societal stakeholders as well as for the media. Tweets about Swiss universities were collected through the Twitter application programming interface (API) and analyzed with a manual content analysis.FindingsAcademic stakeholders had a stronger focus on the scientific dimension of reputation and evaluated universities more positively than societal stakeholders or the news media. The news media were the main source of negative evaluations of universities on Twitter.Research limitations/implicationsThe study showed a dichotomy between the scientific dimension on the one hand, and the corporate dimensions of reputation on the other hand, and thus implies a decoupling of scientific and corporate reputation. However, the findings should be explored beyond Twitter to be more generalizable.Practical implicationsThe news media play an important role in the constitution of the scientific and corporate reputation of universities on Twitter. An orientation toward the news media, therefore, remains a promising strategy to manage reputation.Social implicationsThe news media are an important source of information for academic and societal stakeholders. Thus, they can contribute to integrating academic and societal stakeholder groups by producing a common base of knowledge of higher education and its organizations.Originality/valueThis is the first study to comprehensively measure the reputation of universities on Twitter.

Изъяснительные конструкции в русском поэтическом дискурсе XXI века: тенденции использования

This article provides a semantic view of selection and use of units capable of acting as explanatory markers. Based on the Russian National Corpus, I analyse the use of tools that form the explanation paradigm in the Russian language — i. e. relevant complex sentences, sentences with parenthetical components, paratactic explanatory sentences, propositional phrases and deliberatives — in the poetic discourse of the last two decades. This makes it possible to determine the main trends in how explanatory structures are used in the poetic discourse, shedding light on a number of specific issues: the unique traits of explanatory structures in the poetic discourse; motivation behind the specific explanatory structures driven by the structural and semantic traits of lyrical poetry and discursively motivated syntactic phenomena connected to the presentation of the modus. The analysis of the regularities that determine the use of explanatory structures in poetic discourse has demonstrated that the author’s choice of explanatory tools is motivated by communicative, stylistic, cognitive and aesthetic reasons. Major conclusions of the study are as follows: the dialogic mode — which implies that communicants rely on a common knowledge base — and the desire for ambiguity are the key communicative factors that drive the choice of explanatory tools in the poetic discourse; the shift towards colloquialism causes a change in the frequency of various explanatory structures, namely more conjunctionless structures and sentences with an introductory component relative to complex sentences; explanatory structures demonstrate features that are not typical of other types of written literary discourse. i. e. model contamination, syntax-directed syncretism and ambiguous syntax; the expansion of the referential composition and the deliberate referential uncertainty of the modal subject are discursively motivated in the sphere of modus presentation. These trends and facts do not only explain why explanatory structures are scarce in poetry in general, but also their unique functional load which compensates for the low frequency of their use.

УПРАВЛІННЯ ІННОВАЦІЙНИМ РОЗВИТКОМ ПІДПРИЄМСТВА ІЗ ЗАСТОСУВАННЯМ ТЕХНОПОЛІСНОЇ КОНЦЕПЦІЇ

The article provides a research survey in the area of innovation development and innovation process management. It offerstechno-policy model of information maintenance of innovation development. А соnсеpt is given related to industrial andadministrative-territorial information flows synthesis to form а common base of knowledge in the field of management andinnovation development. The growing use of new knowledge in a developed system of innovation processes has become thebasis for sustainable socio-economic development of countries that are entering the late industrial and post-industrial phases ofdevelopment. The analysis of current trends and the role of this new sector of the world economy, conducted by the authors,gives grounds for the following conclusions: – the results of scientific and technical (innovative) activities are one of the mainresources that determines the rate of economic growth of developed countries; – the role of the new sector in the distribution ofspheres of influence on the international markets of tangible assets (production volume and profit from their sale) is growing; –the role of the market of innovative products in the redistribution of price policy factors between industrialized countries andcountries exporting raw materials (through a system of world prices for raw materials and prices for products made usingknowledge-intensive and high technology). It is fundamentally important that the effectiveness of development in modern societyis achieved not only through the development of science and industry, but also by ensuring the entire innovation cycle, from theprocess of acquiring new knowledge, transferring it to productive sectors of the economy and ending with their use andimplementation. Since the use of new knowledge is usually carried out in order to obtain economically significant competitiveadvantages in the final product market, all stages of the innovation cycle are under the informational, organizational and financialinfluence of market factors.

ДЕЦЕНТРАЛІЗОВАНЕ ЦЕНТРАЛЬНЕ УПРАВЛІННЯ: НОВІ ПЕРСПЕКТИВИ ДИСКУСІЇ ЩОДО СОЦІАЛІСТИЧНОГО ПЛАНУВАННЯ

The importance of the centralisation/decentralisation debate has been highlighted during the Covid-19 pandemic. This controversy is not new. The paper examines the two possibilities. – planning from the centre or, from the periphery and finally proposes a third way which combines the best of both. The debate is approached from various angles – a cybernetic perspective, socio-political perspective and an economic perspective. The core result is the creation of Decentralised Central Control (DCC) which allows optimal control at nodes/regions and data transmission and decision implementation is optimised. The DCC is predicated on the assumption that technology advance can create a system of central planning which is essentially decentralised and is not inhibited by the fatal flaws of traditional Central Planning such as leads and lags in decision making and information exchange on the back of a static and unchanging technology. The fractal system envisaged in this paper is almost a clone of the rational expectations configuration of the perfect market where there is instantaneous market clearing and near-perfect foresight for all agents on the basis of common knowledge. In this paper, we have demonstrated the notion of the problem of externalities and the divergence between private and social cost in common scarce resources and the solution offered by Eleanor Ostrom which is in fact a qualitative version of the Folk Theorem of Game Theory where perfect solutions arise once all parties realise a commonality purpose given a low discount rate and trigger price strategies.

The Qualifying Field Exam: What Is It Good For?

ABSTRACTMost political scientists self-identify as a comparativist, theorist, Americanist, or another label corresponding with the qualifying field exams (QFE) that they passed during their doctoral studies. Passing the QFE indicates that a graduate student or faculty member is broadly familiar with the full range of theories, approaches, and debates within a subfield or research theme. The value of the QFE as a form of certification, however, depends on the extent to which the subfield or theme is cohesive in and of itself as well as whether departmental lists draw on a common pool of publications. This article investigates the value of the QFE by examining the cohesiveness of 16 Canadian politics PhD QFE lists. Our findings suggest that it is problematic to assume that scholars who pass a QFE share a common knowledge base.

Modelling adaptive information security for SMEs in a cluster

Purpose This paper presents a method for adapting an Information Security Focus Area Maturity (ISFAM) model to the organizational characteristics (OCs) of a small- and medium-sized enterprise (SME) cluster. The purpose of this paper is to provide SMEs with a tailored maturity model enabling them to capture and improve their information security capabilities. Design/methodology/approach Design Science Research was followed to design and evaluate the method as a design artifact. Findings The method has successfully been used to adapt the ISFAM model to a group of SMEs within a regional cluster resulting in a model that is aligned with the OCs of the cluster. Areas for further investigation and improvements were identified. Research limitations/implications The study is based on applying the proposed method for the SMEs active in the transport, logistics and packaging sector in the Port of Rotterdam. Future research can focus on different sectors and regions. The method can be used for adapting other focus area maturity models. Practical implications The resulting adapted maturity model can facilitate the creation and further development of a base of common or shared knowledge in the cluster. The adapted maturity model can cut the cost of over implementation of information security capabilities for the SMEs with scarce resources. Originality/value The resulting adapted maturity model can facilitate the creation and further development of a base of common or shared knowledge in the cluster. The adapted maturity model can cut the cost of over implementation of information security capabilities for the SMEs with scarce resources.

Round table: Applying multidisciplinary sciences to improve paediatric primary care for children in Europe

Abstract Considerable progress has been made in improving child health and well-being in Europe over the past 40 years, with great reductions in neonatal, and child deaths, and in deaths from causes such as vaccine-preventable diseases. Paediatric primary care (PPC) has significantly contributed to these advances. However, there are still differences between and within countries regarding the content and organizations of primary care for children that might have an impact on important aspects such as access and availability of primary care. These cross-country and within-country differences together with current and future challenges in child health care, such as increasing prevalence of chronic and long-term conditions, fragmentation of care and shortage of health personnel, pose a complex challenge for European countries. Working towards an approach to tackle these challenges requires the vision, input and collaboration of multidisciplinary sciences. In this workshop four perspectives are brought together with the goal to learn from each other’s experiences and to establish a common knowledge base on how to collaborate between different disciplines and sciences to bring PPC to a next level. The first presentation will be from a public health perspective and is about the comparison of actual and desired organization and content of adolescent health services. The second presentation will be a paediatrician’s perspective and stresses the importance of an adequately trained paediatric workforce. The third presentation will be from a sociological perspective and focuses on the societal scale drivers framing health among children and their families. In the final presentation a philosophical perspective will be given on adherence to therapy, resilience and resonance in the treatment triangle of ‘patient-family-therapist’. The presentations will be followed by a round table discussion in which the audience will be involved: the presenters will answer questions and discuss with the audience how we should create better and sustainable PCP by making use of multiple disciplines and sciences. Key messages Differences between and within countries regarding the content and organizations of primary care for children might have an impact on important aspects such as access and availability of primary care. Working towards an approach to tackle challenges in paediatric primary care requires the vision, input and collaboration of multidisciplinary sciences.

Bone and soft tissue infections in patients with diabetic foot.

Bone and soft tissue infection involving the foot is a serious complication of diabetes mellitus and represents a major public health and socioeconomic burden to National Health Services worldwide. Research in the past decade has improved diagnosis and treatment of these frequent and potentially devastating complications of diabetic foot which often remain difficult to be diagnosed and treated despite the availability of various clinical, serological, and imaging modalities. Furthermore, neuropathic osteoarthropathy can share many clinical and imaging features of osteomyelitis, and infection is often superimposed in patients with neuropathic disease. Thus, distinguishing between the two abnormalities is further complicated. Although the reference standard for diagnosis remains microbiologic analysis of bone specimens, in most clinical practice, soft tissue and bone infection involving the diabetic foot is diagnosed solely on the basis of a combination of clinical evaluation, serum inflammatory markers, and imaging modalities. Correlation between imaging findings and clinical features is very important as well as a common knowledge base for treatment team members rather than a compartmentalized view. Thus, the primary purpose of this review article was to provide radiologist and clinician with important clinical knowledge and relevant radiological semiotics, respectively, in order to facilitate a prompt diagnosis and personalised treatment of diabetic foot infections.

A traceability proposal for industry 4.0

This research examines traceability and its model in industry 4.0. Hence, this paper introduces the main design features of this model. The fourth industrial revolution is an environment that combines manufacturing with the Internet of Things and cyber-physical Systems. In such an environment, various sources (i.e., smart products, intelligent agents, and sensors) generate an increasing amount of data, which is essential for effective traceability. However, due to these heterogeneous sources, a traceability system should face the interoperability challenge and overcome the data integration issue. Moreover, the incorporation of this information in a traceability tool is motivated by the requirement to have access to a maximum amount of accurate product data. Thus, this article proposes to take advantage of industry 4.0 information. Also, the present study advocates that traceability should not only allow trace and track but also ensure product safety and quality. Accordingly, the proposal includes an intelligent traceability description, an ontology-based modeling, and a cloud-based application. This system provides users with a common knowledge base to access and represent data. Also, this model enables users to share and query remotely the traceable information using the cloud.

Improving the understanding of flood risk in the Alsatian region by knowledge capitalization: the ORRION participative observatory

Abstract. Despite the strong societal impact of natural hazards, their documentation remains incomplete, with only a few inventories exceeding the past two centuries. Surprisingly enough, this also applies to Europe, a densely populated territory, and to floods, which along with storms are the most common and damage-causing natural hazard in Europe. In addition, existing inventories have often been compiled by scientists and technicians and are used for risk management in a top-down manner, although the participation of all parties concerned has been recognized as a key factor for disaster reduction. To address this double paradox, the present article presents the regional flood risk observatory ORRION for the Alsatian region, north-eastern France, and its very rich data content. Stemming from two successive interdisciplinary and transnational French–German research projects, ORRION was designed as a participative online platform on which information is shared between individuals, stakeholders, engineers, and scientists. This original approach aims at maximizing knowledge capitalization and contributes to building a common knowledge base for flood risk. ORRION is organized by events including all river floods that have likely arisen from a single synoptic situation. For each event, it documents information sources, date of occurrence, causes, and consequences in terms of damage and affected river basins and municipalities. ORRION has contributed toward renewing our knowledge of flood hazard and risk in the target area. Notably, here, long chronicles of floods are derived for 13 rivers, the Rhine and most of its main Alsatian tributaries and for all Alsatian municipalities, most of them since the end of the 15th century but over more than one millennium for the Rhine. Their main characteristics according to various typologies (seasonality, causes, severity, etc.) are analysed. Major developments over the study period related to sources, land use, and/or climate change are identified. The advantages and limitations of the approach are discussed, and the potential to expand both data exploitation and build common flood risk knowledge is outlined.

Developing a Social–Ecological–Environmental System Framework to Address Climate Change Impacts in the North Pacific

‘Forecasting and Understanding Trends, Uncertainty and Responses of North Pacific Marine Ecosystems’ (FUTURE) is the flagship integrative Scientific Program undertaken by the member nations and affiliates of the North Pacific Marine Science Organization (PICES). A principal goal of FUTURE is to develop a framework for investigating interactions across disciplinary dimensions in order to most effectively understand large-scale ecosystem changes and resulting impacts on coastal communities. These interactions are complex, often nonlinear, occur across a range of spatial and temporal scales, and can complicate management approaches to shared and trans-boundary problems. Here we present a Social-Ecological-Environmental Systems (SEES) framework to coordinate and integrate marine science within PICES. We demonstrate the application of this framework by applying it to four ‘crisis’ case studies: (a) species alternation in the western North Pacific; (b) ecosystem impacts of an extreme heat wave in the eastern North Pacific; (c) jellyfish blooms in the western North Pacific; and (d) Pacific basin-scale warming and species distributional shifts. Our approach fosters a common transdisciplinary language and knowledge base across diverse expertise, providing the basis for developing better integrated end-to-end models. PICES provides the structure required to address these and other multi-national, inter-disciplinary issues we face in the North Pacific. An effective and comprehensive SEES approach is broadly applicable to understanding and maintaining resilient marine ecosystems within a changing climate.

A meta-analytic review of emotional exhaustion in a sales context

Despite 20 years of empirical study on salesperson burnout, involving dozens of articles, researchers have yet to reach consensus on a common knowledge base. As a result, momentum has waned in recent years without clear guidance on a path forward. Through meta-analytic review, this study seeks to clarify what is known in a sales setting about burnout’s central component, emotional exhaustion. The findings will be juxtaposed with findings from similar meta-analytic reviews performed on emotional exhaustion in other work settings. Through this process, research gaps will emerge that can help guide more programmatic research in the future; the results will provide managers with clearer guidance on mitigating burnout.

Exploring the galaxy question: the influence of situation and first principles on designers’ judgments about useful instructional methods

Merrill’s (Education Tech Research Dev 50(3):43–59, 2002, First principles of instruction. In: Reigeluth CM, Carr-Chellman A (eds) Instructional-design theories and models: building a common knowledge base, vol III. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Hillsdale, NJ, pp 41–56, 2009) first principles have become ubiquitous in the instructional design literature and in the syllabi of instructional design graduate programs. Some consider first principles to be universal, that they are applicable to all instructional situations. To examine this closer, this research examines the galaxy question posed by Reigeluth and Carr-Chellman (Situational principles of instruction. In: Reigeluth CM, Carr-Chellman A (eds) Instructional-design theories and models: building a common knowledge base, vol III. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Hillsdale, NJ, pp 57–68, 2009a), which hypothesizes that universal principles and/or methods of instruction are unlikely. To examine the galaxy question, and to replicate and generalize instructional theory findings from previous research, this research asked two groups of instructional designers (one group from an Introductory instructional design course, and another group in a Capstone course) to rate the usefulness of 26 instructional methods for No Conditions (values), Situation (first principles), and Scenarios (rich conditions). The results show no significant difference in values about methods between the two groups, suggesting that the source of designer values comes from individual learning experiences, and not dominant group socialization as predicted. Furthermore, the results replicate and generalize findings from prior research. Overall, the results suggest that first principles are not universal, and the researcher suggests that another first principle be added to Merrill’s first principles model to better represent the interests of the affective domain.

Designing and implementing a collaborative health knowledge system

The huge diversity and quantity of data and information, and the requirements for knowledge extraction out of them put new challenges for knowledge management, synthesis, conflict detection and reasoning This paper elaborates on the design and development of COSMOS, an intelligent system which supports a) collaboration of experts for developing common knowledge bases and b) diagnosis derivation which takes into account time and uncertainty. The health domain is used for illustration and discussion of the features of our approach. Initially, we present the syntax and the semantics of the rules which incorporate time (temporal rules) and the data items upon which reasoning is performed. Then we introduce its inference engine, able to perform reasoning on top of rules and data, handling also the embedded time and uncertainty. We proceed further to define a conflict detection policy for supporting the difficult and error prone task of rule generation. The complexities of the aforementioned tasks are hidden from users via a well-designed and user friendly web interface that possesses strong collaboration features enabling multiple experts to work on defining a rule and on developing a common knowledge base. Evaluation of COSMOS has been performed using a) students studying expert systems and b) health experts in order to demonstrate the usability of the approach and the considerable advantages gained. To the best of our knowledge, COSMOS is one of the very few systems combining temporal rules, a powerful inference engine handling uncertainty and conflict detection and progresses beyond state of the art by adopting strong collaboration features and paradigms.

Gradual tool-based optimization of engineering processes aiming at a knowledge-based configuration of robot-based automation solutions

Due to the growing individualization and ever shorter product life cycles, the engineering of automation solutions is facing increasing challenges. The rethinking of common engineering processes and the inclusion of knowledge-based approaches are considered inevitable. However, existing optimization measures often do not meet the actual problems as many approaches in academics are still too immature for practical use. Therefore, a rather simple procedure for the optimization of knowledge-intensive engineering processes is presented here, mainly relying on the incremental, tool-based creation of a common knowledge base. The procedure is validated using the example of a German automotive supplier. Building on this, the further development towards a knowledge-based configuration platform for robot-based automation solutions is illustrated in the outlook.