Representational Artifacts Research Articles

Beyond tokenistic participation: Using representational artefacts to enable meaningful public participation in health service design

A number of recent policies promote public participation in health service design. Yet, a growing literature has articulated a gap between policy aims and actual practice resulting in public participation becoming tokenistic. Drawing on theory from participatory design, we argue that choosing appropriate artefacts to act as representations can structure discussions between public participants and health professionals in ways that both groups find meaningful and valid. Through a case study of a service improvement project in outpatient services for older people, we describe three representational artefacts: emotion maps, stories, and tracing paper, and explain how they helped to mediate interactions between public participants and health professionals. We suggest that using such representational artefacts can provide an alternative approach to participation that stands in contrast to the current focus on the professionalisation of public participants. We conclude that including participatory designers in projects, to chose or design appropriate representational artefacts, can help to address the policy–practice gap of including public participants in health service design.

A Taxonomy of Cognitive Artifacts: Function, Information, and Categories

The goal of this paper is to develop a systematic taxonomy of cognitive artifacts, i.e., human-made, physical objects that functionally contribute to performing a cognitive task. First, I identify the target domain by conceptualizing the category of cognitive artifacts as a functional kind: a kind of artifact that is defined purely by its function. Next, on the basis of their informational properties, I develop a set of related subcategories in which cognitive artifacts with similar properties can be grouped. In this taxonomy, I distinguish between three taxa, those of family, genus, and species. The family includes all cognitive artifacts without further specifying their informational properties. Two genera are then distinguished: representational and non-representational (or ecological) cognitive artifacts. These genera are further divided into species. In case of representational artifacts, these species are iconic, indexical, or symbolic. In case of ecological artifacts, these species are spatial or structural. Within species, token artifacts are identified. The proposed taxonomy is an important first step towards a better understanding of the range and variety of cognitive artifacts and is a helpful point of departure, both for conceptualizing how different artifacts augment or impair cognitive performance and how they transform and are integrated into our cognitive system and practices.

When educators attempt to make “community” a part of classroom learning: The dangers of (mis)appropriating students' communities into schools

In this article, we explore the ambiguous associations of the term “community” within one professional development (PD) program that engaged teachers in using mobile technologies to learn about data. We argue that multiple meanings of “community” are embedded in competing ideological discourses that reproduce and/or contest relationships of power that shape the educational experiences of students of color. We examine how the norms, representational artifacts, and tools in the PD we studied co-constructed various meanings of “community.” Lastly, we explore the implications of our findings for PD facilitators by disambiguating other analyses that are often conflated with “community.”

Scaffolds for design communication: Research through design of shared understanding in design meetings

AbstractIn this paper we explore the influence of the physical and social environment (the design space) son the formation of shared understanding in multidisciplinary design teams. We concentrate on the creative design meeting as a microenvironment for studying processes of design communication. Our applied research context entails the design of mixed physical–digital interactive systems supporting design meetings. Informed by theories of embodiment that have recently gained interest in cognitive science, we focus on the role of interactive “traces,” representational artifacts both created and used by participants as scaffolds for creating shared understanding. Our research through design approach resulted in two prototypes that form two concrete proposals of how the environment may scaffold shared understanding in design meetings. In several user studies we observed users working with our systems in natural contexts. Our analysis reveals how an ensemble of ongoing social as well as physical interactions, scaffolded by the interactive environment, grounds the formation of shared understanding in teams. We discuss implications for designing collaborative tools and for design communication theory in general.

Punctuation and extrapolation: representing a subsurface oil reservoir

This article discusses how data are made to represent subsurface phenomena in petroleum production. Drawing on studies of the subsurface disciplines in an oil company, and the multitude of sensor data employed there, we suggest that sensor data as representational artifacts are punctuated along three axes. We refer to this as spatial, temporal and aspectual punctuation. Whereas, the first two refer to the positioning of data in space and time, the latter refers to the sensors’ response to single aspects of the interaction with a subsurface phenomenon. We show how extrapolation of punctuated data is a crucial element of the work of understanding the subsurface. It is when the punctuated data points are creatively extrapolated along the three axes of punctuation that ideas and models of the subsurface phenomena take shape. Consequently, we argue that the processes of punctuation and extrapolation are the keys to understand how knowledge about the subsurface is created at the onshore office. Punctuation gives mobility whereas extrapolation is necessary to establish reference between the punctuated data and the inaccessible oil reservoir. We specifically discuss the implications this has for reservoir models as representational artifacts.

Proposed actions are no actions: re-modeling an ontology design pattern with a realist top-level ontology.

BackgroundOntology Design Patterns (ODPs) are representational artifacts devised to offer solutions for recurring ontology design problems. They promise to enhance the ontology building process in terms of flexibility, re-usability and expansion, and to make the result of ontology engineering more predictable. In this paper, we analyze ODP repositories and investigate their relation with upper-level ontologies. In particular, we compare the BioTop upper ontology to the Action ODP from the NeOn an ODP repository. In view of the differences in the respective approaches, we investigate whether the Action ODP can be embedded into BioTop. We demonstrate that this requires re-interpreting the meaning of classes of the NeOn Action ODP in the light of the precepts of realist ontologies.ResultsAs a result, the re-design required clarifying the ontological commitment of the ODP classes by assigning them to top-level categories. Thus, ambiguous definitions are avoided. Classes of real entities are clearly distinguished from classes of information artifacts. The proposed approach avoids the commitment to the existence of unclear future entities which underlies the NeOn Action ODP. Our re-design is parsimonious in the sense that existing BioTop content proved to be largely sufficient to define the different types of actions and plans.ConclusionsThe proposed model demonstrates that an expressive upper-level ontology provides enough resources and expressivity to represent even complex ODPs, here shown with the different flavors of Action as proposed in the NeOn ODP. The advantage of ODP inclusion into a top-level ontology is the given predetermined dependency of each class, an existing backbone structure and well-defined relations. Our comparison shows that the use of some ODPs is more likely to cause problems for ontology developers, rather than to guide them. Besides the structural properties, the explanation of classification results were particularly hard to grasp for 'self-sufficient' ODPs as compared with implemented and 'embedded' upper-level structures which, for example in the case of BioTop, offer a detailed description of classes and relations in an axiomatic network. This ensures unambiguous interpretation and provides more concise constraints to leverage on in the ontology engineering process.

Between and beyond data: How analogue field experience informs the interpretation of remote data sources in petroleum reservoir geology

This paper explores how experience from field trips to geological analogues informs the interpretation of remote data sources in petroleum reservoir geology. It is based on observations of a group of petroleum geologists on a field trip to an analogue field and descriptions of the typical office work of such professionals in the same company. Special attention is given to representational artefacts and data types employed in the different settings. Field trips are experiences in which the geologists develop skills in handling the relationship between geological and physical structures experienced in the field and conventional representations of them. When trying to make sense of the offshore reservoirs deep beneath the seabed, they have to make do with fragmentary data from remote sensor arrangements. When creating integrated ideas of a reservoir based on sparse remote data sources, petroleum geologists draw analogies to the patterns observed in the field and draw from the skills developed when performing similar extrapolations in the field.

Properties of metabolic graphs: biological organization or representation artifacts?

BackgroundStandard graphs, where each edge links two nodes, have been extensively used to represent the connectivity of metabolic networks. It is based on this representation that properties of metabolic networks, such as hierarchical and small-world structures, have been elucidated and null models have been proposed to derive biological organization hypotheses. However, these graphs provide a simplistic model of a metabolic network's connectivity map, since metabolic reactions often involve more than two reactants. In other words, this map is better represented as a hypergraph. Consequently, a question that naturally arises in this context is whether these properties truly reflect biological organization or are merely an artifact of the representation.ResultsIn this paper, we address this question by reanalyzing topological properties of the metabolic network of Escherichia coli under a hypergraph representation, as well as standard graph abstractions. We find that when clustering is properly defined for hypergraphs and subsequently used to analyze metabolic networks, the scaling of clustering, and thus the hierarchical structure hypothesis in metabolic networks, become unsupported. Moreover, we find that incorporating the distribution of reaction sizes into the null model further weakens the support for the scaling patterns.ConclusionsThese results combined suggest that the reported scaling of the clustering coefficients in the metabolic graphs and its specific power coefficient may be an artifact of the graph representation, and may not be supported when biochemical reactions are atomically treated as hyperedges. This study highlights the implications of the way a biological system is represented and the null model employed on the elucidated properties, along with their support, of the system.

Relações entre atividades sensoriais e artefatos culturais na apropriação de práticas matemáticas de um aprendiz cego

Neste artigo, exploramos a natureza social e corporificada da cognição matemática, argumentando que a apropriação de práticas matemáticas envolve a coordenação de fala, gestos, objetos materiais e atividades sensoriais. Utilizando um quadro teórico em desenvolvimento, no qual tentamos combinar aspectos das perspectivas socioculturais de Vygotsky e Leontiev, com abordagens mais recentes da neurociência da cognição humana, investigamos como um estudante cego, interagindo com uma professora (pesquisadora), chegou a conhecer aspectos da matemática em questão (simetria e reflexão), por um processo que envolve a simulação mental de experiências passadas. Exploramos também o papel da pesquisadora no sentido de facilitar um tipo de entrelaçamento entre cultura e cognição, convidando o aluno a fazer conexões entre as experiências sensoriais (passado e presente), artefatos de representação e significados matemáticos culturalmente aceitos.

Consolidating SNOMED CT's ontological commitment

SNOMED CT is a clinical terminology that uses logical axioms to provide terms with meaning. This enforces precise agreements about the ontological nature of the entities denoted by the terms, commonly described as ontological commitment. We demonstrate that SNOMED CT implicitly supports at least three different kinds of ontological commitments: (i) commitments to independently existing entities, (ii) commitments to representational artifacts and (iii) commitments to clinical situations. Our analysis shows how the truth-value of a sentence changes according to one of these perspectives. We argue that a clear understanding of to what kind of entities SNOMED CT terms denote is crucial for the proper use and maintenance of SNOMED CT. We argue that the three kinds of commitment can co-exist but need to be clearly distinguished.

The process of embedding new information technology artifacts into innovative design practices

The design and creation of anything innovative requires knowledge creation, which in turn often depends upon the introduction of innovative information technology (IT). Since design-related practices are deeply integrated with particular IT artifacts, it is no trivial task to migrate practice-based knowledge to unfamiliar IT artifacts. To explore the challenges associated with such migration, we develop the concept of embeddedness of IT artifacts by drawing on research that highlights the critical role of representational artifacts in knowledge, design, and distributed cognition. We then inductively analyze interview data from an in-depth case study of Frank Gehry, a world-renowned and radically innovative architect known for his use of sophisticated 3D computer-aided design (CAD) technology. By studying construction firms' transition from 2D CAD to 3D CAD, we identify four relevant themes associated with embedding new artifacts into knowledge-creating practice: (1) motivating the new artifact; (2) anchoring the new artifact in the old; (3) experimenting with the new artifact; and (4) confidence in using the new artifact. Through the generation of a process theory of embedding, we elaborate on how this perspective complements and extends research on IT adaptation and assimilation, and discuss the relevance of continuing to develop the IT embeddedness perspective given the continuing need for increased levels of IT-enabled innovation.

SNOMED CT’s Ontological Commitment

AbstractSNOMED CT is a clinical terminology that describes the meaning of terms by logical axioms. This requires an ontological commitment, i.e. precise agreements about the ontological nature of the entities referred to. We provide evidence that SNOMED implicitly supports at least three different kinds of commitments, viz. (i) independently existing entities, (ii) representational artifacts, and (iii) clinical situations. Our analysis shows how the truth-value of a sentence changes according to one of these perspectives. We argue that a clear understanding of to what kind of entities SNOMED CT concepts extend is crucial for the proper use and maintenance of SNOMED CT.

SNOMED CT’s Ontological Commitment

SNOMED CT is a clinical terminology that describes the meaning of terms by logical axioms. This requires an ontological commitment, i.e. precise agreements about the ontological nature of the entities referred to. We provide evidence that SNOMED implicitly supports at least three different kinds of commitments, viz. (i) independently existing entities, (ii) representational artifacts, and (iii) clinical situations. Our analysis shows how the truth-value of a sentence changes according to one of these perspectives. We argue that a clear understanding of to what kind of entities SNOMED CT concepts extend is crucial for the proper use and maintenance of SNOMED CT.

Computational and analytical framework for small RNA profiling by high-throughput sequencing

The advent of high-throughput sequencing (HTS) methods has enabled direct approaches to quantitatively profile small RNA populations. However, these methods have been limited by several factors, including representational artifacts and lack of established statistical methods of analysis. Furthermore, massive HTS data sets present new problems related to data processing and mapping to a reference genome. Here, we show that cluster-based sequencing-by-synthesis technology is highly reproducible as a quantitative profiling tool for several classes of small RNA from Arabidopsis thaliana. We introduce the use of synthetic RNA oligoribonucleotide standards to facilitate objective normalization between HTS data sets, and adapt microarray-type methods for statistical analysis of multiple samples. These methods were tested successfully using mutants with small RNA biogenesis (miRNA-defective dcl1 mutant and siRNA-defective dcl2 dcl3 dcl4 triple mutant) or effector protein (ago1 mutant) deficiencies. Computational methods were also developed to rapidly and accurately parse, quantify, and map small RNA data.

Vantagens e limitações das ontologias formais na área biomédica

We propose a typology of representational artifacts for health care and life sciences domains and associate this typology with different kinds of formal ontology and logic, drawing conclusions as to the strengths and limitations for ontology of different kinds of logical resources, with a focus on description logics. The four types of domain representation we consider are: (i) lexico-semantic representation, (ii) representation of types of entities, (iii) representations of background knowledge, and (iv) representation of individuals. We advocate a clear distinction of the four kinds of representation in order to provide a more rational basis for using of ontologies and related artifacts to advance integration of data and interoperability of associated reasoning systems. We highlight the fact that only a minor portion of scientifically relevant facts in a domain such as biomedicine can be adequately represented by formal ontologies when the latter are conceived as representations of entity types. In particular, the attempt to encode default or probabilistic knowledge using ontologies so conceived is prone to produce unintended, erroneous models.

Strengths and limitations of formal ontologies in the biomedical domain

We propose a typology of representational artifacts for health care and life sciences domains and associate this typology with different kinds of formal ontology and logic, drawing conclusions as to the strengths and limitations for ontology of different kinds of logical resources, with a focus on description logics.The four types of domain representation we consider are: (i) lexico-semantic representation, (ii) representation of types of entities, (iii) representations of background knowledge, and (iv) representation of individuals.We advocate a clear distinction of the four kinds of representation in order to provide a more rational basis for using of ontologies and related artifacts to advance integration of data and interoperability of associated reasoning systems.We highlight the fact that only a minor portion of scientifically relevant facts in a domain such as biomedicine can be adequately represented by formal ontologies when the latter are conceived as representations of entity types. In particular, the attempt to encode default or probabilistic knowledge using ontologies so conceived is prone to produce unintended, erroneous models.

Physical and Digital Artifact-Mediated Coordination in Building Design

We conducted an ethnographic field study examining how a building design team used representational artifacts to coordinate the design of building systems, structure, and architecture. The goals of this study were to characterize the different interactions meeting participants had with design artifacts, to identify bottlenecks in the design coordination process, and to develop design considerations for CSCW technology that will support in-person design coordination meetings of building design teams. We found that gesturing, navigation, annotation, and viewing were the four primary interactions meeting participants had with design artifacts. The form of the design information (2D vs. 3D, digital vs. physical) had minimal impact on gesture interactions, although navigation varied significantly with different representations of design information. Bottlenecks in the design process were observed when meeting participants attempted to navigate digital information, interact with wall displays, and access information individually and as a group. Based on our observations, we present some possible directions for future CSCW technologies, including new mechanisms for digital bookmarking, interacting with 2D and 3D design artifacts simultaneously, and enriched pointing techniques and pen functionality.

Adapting Clinical Ontologies in Real-World Environments.

The desideratum of semantic interoperability has been intensively discussed in medical informatics circles in recent years. Originally, experts assumed that this issue could be sufficiently addressed by insisting simply on the application of shared clinical terminologies or clinical information models. However, the use of the term 'ontology' has been steadily increasing more recently. We discuss criteria for distinguishing clinical ontologies from clinical terminologies and information models. Then, we briefly present the role clinical ontologies play in two multicentric research projects. Finally, we discuss the interactions between these different kinds of knowledge representation artifacts and the stakeholders involved in developing interoperational real-world clinical applications. We provide ontology engineering examples from two EU-funded projects.

Epistemic Objects, Artefacts and Organizational Change

One of the key concepts of the neo-institutional studies of organizations has been routine—an established, rule-governed pattern of action. The concept of routine creates difficulties when used for making sense of the emergence of new practices or change in organizations and institutions. There are two reasons for this. First, routine was introduced originally to account for the continuity of organizational life. Second, it is based on theories of action and behaviour that focus exclusively on the pre-reflective and embodied aspects of human practice. This paper seeks an alternative approach by using the concepts of epistemic object and artefact mediation of human activity. It argues that representational artefacts, such as concepts and models, are instrumental in inducing change in human practices. Using the work of occupational health and safety inspectors as an example, it is shown how a practice or set of routines is made into an object of enquiry in order to generate a working hypothesis for an alternative practice. The hypothesis is further objectified by designing a set of informational tools and procedures that carry on the new practice.

Bootstrapping and normalization for enhanced evaluations of pairwise sequence comparison

The exponentially growing library of known protein sequences represents molecules connected by, an intricate network of evolutionary and functional relationships. To reveal these relationships, virtually every molecular biology experiment incorporates computational sequence analysis. The workhorse methods for this task make alignments between two sequences to measure their similarity. Informed use of these methods, such as NCBI BLAST, WU-BLAST, FASTA and SSEARCH, requires understanding of their effectiveness. To permit informed sequence analysis, we. have assessed the effectiveness of modern versions of these algorithms using the trusted relationships among ASTRAL sequences in the Structural Classification of Proteins database classification of protein structures. We have reduced database representation artifacts through the use of a normalization method that addresses the uneven distribution of superfamily sizes. To allow for more meaningful and interpretable comparisons of results, we have implemented a bootstrapping procedure. We find that the most difficult pairwise relations to detect are those between members of larger superfamilies, and our test set is biased toward these. However even when results are normalized, most distant evolutionary relationships elude detection.