EPCs Annotated with Lexical and Semantic Labels to Bridge the Gap between Human Understandability and Machine Interpretability

Author(s):  
Andreas Bögl ◽  
Michael Karlinger ◽  
Michael Schrefl ◽  
Gustav Pomberger

Labels of EPC functions and events are the key to understanding EPC models by humans and by machines. Empirical studies show that the current labeling practice of model elements is conducted rather arbitrarily which inherently causes potential threats for understanding by humans. Thus, refactoring of model element labels is suggested either human-driven or with automated support while semantic annotation using domain-ontologies is well-recognized to approach the understanding of model elements by machines. Current research either focuses on improving the quality of labels or on semantic annotation to facilitate machine interpretability. To the best of our knowledge, there is a significant lack of approaches that facilitate to exploit the potentials and benefits arising from bridging the gap between approaches that improve human understandability and that facilitate machine interpretability. This work introduces a comprehensive, formalized approach that enables the modeling tasks automated refactoring of model elements and automated semantic annotation by bridging the gap between informal and formal representation of model elements.

Author(s):  
Jacob Stegenga

Medical scientists employ ‘quality assessment tools’ to assess evidence from medical research, especially from randomized trials. These tools are designed to take into account methodological details of studies, including randomization, subject allocation concealment, and other features of studies deemed relevant to minimizing bias. There are dozens of such tools available. They differ widely from each other, and empirical studies show that they have low inter-rater reliability and low inter-tool reliability. This is an instance of a more general problem called here the underdetermination of evidential significance. Disagreements about the quality of evidence can be due to different—but in principle equally good—weightings of the methodological features that constitute quality assessment tools. Thus, the malleability of empirical research in medicine is deep: in addition to the malleability of first-order empirical methods, such as randomized trials, there is malleability in the tools used to evaluate first-order methods.


2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (5) ◽  
pp. 94
Author(s):  
Khalid Ayad ◽  
Khaoula Dobli Bennani ◽  
Mostafa Elhachloufi

The concept of governance has become ubiquitous since it is recognized as an important tool for improving quality in all aspects of higher education.In Morocco, few scientific articles have dealt with the subject of university governance. Therefore, we will present a general review of the evolution of governance through laws and reforms established by Moroccan Governments from 1975 to 2019. The purpose of the study is to detect the extent of the presence of university governance principles in these reforms.This study enriches the theoretical literature on the crisis of Moroccan university and opens the way to new empirical studies to better understand the perception of university governance concept in the Moroccan context and to improve the quality of higher education and subsequently the economic development of the country.The findings of this study show an increasing evolution of the presence of university governance principles in reforms and higher education laws.


Author(s):  
Serena Vi ◽  
Damon Pham ◽  
Yu Yian Marina Du ◽  
Himanshu Arora ◽  
Santosh Kumar Tadakamadla

Purpose: Mini-dental implants (MDIs) have been used to support and retain overdentures, providing patients with a less invasive placement procedure. Although lucrative, the use of MDIs to retain a maxillary overdenture is still not an established treatment modality. This systematic review aims to answer the question: Do mini-implant-retained maxillary overdentures provide a satisfactory treatment outcome for complete edentulism? Methods: A systematic search for relevant articles was conducted to include articles published until April 2021 in the following electronic databases: CINAHL, Cochrane, EMBASE, PubMed, and Web of Science. All empirical studies evaluating the biological, survival, or patient-reported outcomes after placing mini-implant-retained overdentures in maxilla were considered for inclusion. The risk of bias was assessed by utilizing the Joanna Briggs Institute critical appraisal checklist. Study screening and data extraction were conducted by three reviewers independently. Results: The electronic search retrieved 1276 titles after omitting duplicates. Twenty articles were considered for full-text review, of which six studies were included in this systematic review. The included studies evaluated a total of 173 participants with a mean age of 66.3 years. The overall mini-implant survival rate was 77.1% (95% CI: 64.7–89.5%) with a mean follow-up time of 1.79 years (range: 6 months to 3 years). Implant survival differed significantly when comparing complete and partial palatal coverage overdentures. Those with complete palatal coverage exhibited less bone loss overall compared to partial coverage overdentures. Participants of all studies reported an increase in the quality of life and in satisfaction after rehabilitation treatment with MDIs. Conclusions: The survival rate of mini-implants retaining an overdenture in the maxilla was observed to be lower than the values reported for traditional implants in the literature. Improvements were observed in all aspects in terms of patient satisfaction, quality of life, oromyofunction, and articulation after the treatment.


Author(s):  
H. Ensaff

Populations' diets typically fall short of recommendations. The implication of this on ill health and quality of life is well established, as are the subsequent health care costs. An area of growing interest within public health nutrition is food choice architecture; how a food choice is framed and its influence on subsequent food selection. In particular, there is an appeal to manipulating the choice architecture in order to nudge individuals' food choice. This review outlines the current understanding of food choice architecture, theoretical background to nudging and the evidence on the effectiveness of nudge strategies, as well as their design and implementation. Interventions emphasising the role of nudge strategies have investigated changes to the accessibility, availability and presentation of food and the use of prompts. Empirical studies have been conducted in laboratories, online and in real-world food settings, and with different populations. Evidence on the effectiveness of nudge strategies in shifting food choice is encouraging. Underpinning mechanisms, not yet fully explicated, are proposed to relate to salience, social norms and the principle of least effort. Emerging evidence points to areas for development including the effectiveness of choice architecture interventions with different and diverse populations, and the combined effect of multiple nudges. This, alongside further examination of theoretical mechanisms and guidance to engage and inspire across the breadth of food provision, is critical. In this way, the potential of choice architecture to effect meaningful change in populations' diets will be realised.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Egor Bunov

The monograph contains a theoretical analysis of the social effectiveness of the internal affairs bodies as the degree of satisfaction of the population with the quality of law enforcement activities to protect their interests, rights and freedoms. The results of a multidimensional analysis of empirical studies of the influence of macro - and microsocial factors on the effectiveness of interaction between the population and law enforcement agencies are presented. The article substantiates the criteria for social assessment of the activities of the internal affairs bodies, the use of which allows for practical adjustment of the forms and methods of the management system. For a wide range of readers interested in the practice of applying legal measures of law enforcement.


2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Reka R. Jablonkai ◽  
Jie Hou

Abstract In 2001, the Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China issued guidelines to promote the quality of higher education and to advocate the expansion of the use of English (Ministry of Education (MoE). 2001. Guanyu jiaqiang gaodeng xuexiao benke jiaoxue gongzuo tigao jiaoxue zhiliang de ruogan yijian [Guidelines for Improving the Quality of Undergraduate Teaching at Higher Education Institutions]. Available at: http://old.moe.gov.cn/publicfifiles/business/htmlfifiles/moe/moe_309/200412/4682.html). This paper reviews empirical studies in English and Chinese on EMI in Chinese higher education published from 2001 to 2019, during the last two decades since these guidelines were released. The review contributes to the field of EMI by documenting, analysing and synthesising empirical evidence and by situating EMI studies in China in the global trends of EMI research. The review aims to give an overview of studies targeted at both global and local audiences, therefore, publications in both English and Chinese were included. To select the Chinese articles the core journals indexed by CNKI were searched, and for the English articles, we used ERIC, IBSS, SCOPUS and WOS databases. After excluding theoretically oriented studies, literature reviews and commentaries, 42 articles remained. The in-depth analysis revealed that the main topics of these studies included the student perception, implementation and educational practices, and the role of language. We conclude that in general there are insufficient empirical studies, especially about EMI teachers’ perspectives to inform policies and practices at the micro, meso and macro level. Based on the findings, directions for further research are identified and recommendations for methodological approaches for future studies are also made.


2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Παύλος Βασιλόπουλος

This dissertation is concerned with the concept of political sophistication, referring to the extent and organization of a person’s stored political cognition (Luskin 1987).Available empirical evidence on the levels of political sophistication in mass publics comes almost exclusively from the United States and point to two broad conclusions: First, systematic empirical research has demonstrated that political information in the mass public is particularly low (Converse 1964, Delli Carpini and Keeter 1996). Citizens lack basic knowledge over political affairs. Time and again empirical studies have systematically showed that citizens in the United States and elsewhere fall short of passing even the most rudimentary political knowledge tests. This finding that was first illustrated by the Michigan school in the early 1960s (Campbell et al. 1960) resulted in a wide pessimism over the meaning of public opinion and even of representative democracy (Inglehart 1985).The second broad conclusion is that the politically sophisticated and unsophisticated differ: Political sophisticates have the cognitive capacity to translate their deeper held political values and predispositions into consistent political attitudes (Zaller 1992). They are able to use their political knowledge in order to make informed vote choices in the sense that they accurately adjust their political positions to the parties’ platforms (Delli Carpini and Keeter 1996, Lau and Redlawsk 1997, 2006). What is more, they are more likely to participate in elections and other political activities and are less susceptible to political propaganda (Delli Carpini and Keeter 1996).However the idea that political sophistication matters for the quality of the public’s political decision-making has met strong theoretical and methodological criticism by the ‘low information rationality’ perspective (Popkin 1991, Lupia 1994,Graber 2001). This group of theories argues that politically inattentive citizens can form their political judgment on the basis of heuristics that allow them to make reasonable choices reflecting their predispositions and interests even though they lack political knowledge.The principal aims of this thesis are: a)to compare different measurement perspectives on political sophistication and assess their methodological potential especially in regard with comparative research on political knowledgeb)to explore the extent to which the pattern of ignorance that has been repeatedly highlighted in the American literature is an internal characteristic of political behavior stemming from the low expected utility of acquiring political information or it is subject to particular cultural and systemic characteristics. To this direction I use Greece as a case study by undertaking an analytical survey of political sophistication, one of the very few that have been conducted across the Atlantic.c)The third aim is to investigate the determinants of political sophistication and especially the potential of the mass media in political learning and in the context of the Greek political and media system.d)d) Finally this thesis addresses the unresolved question concerning the differences in quality of political decisions between the political sophisticated and unsophisticated layers of the public by evaluating the explanatory potential of two competing theories (political sophistication v. low information rationality) in the multi-party political environment of Greece


Author(s):  
Darryl Coulthard ◽  
Susan Keller

Journal ranking systems are increasingly used to measure research performance of academics and universities. A growing number of academic commentators have voiced concerns of possible undesirable outcomes such as increased publication anxiety and an increase in safe and conforming research, but there have been few empirical studies on the possible effects. To address this gap, we surveyed Information Systems (IS) academics who published in one of three key IS conferences in 2013, to gather their views of the effects of journal ranking systems. Overall, we found that the concerns in the literature were strongly reflected in the views of those surveyed. Academics believe the system has greatly increased their publication anxiety. While most believed that the quality of published research had improved, researchers believe the ranking systems inhibit innovative, risky research, and encourages safe, conforming, mainstream research.


2020 ◽  
Vol 66 (4) ◽  
pp. 40-49
Author(s):  
Petar Vušković

AbstractThe ISO 9001:2015 certificate of quality is nowadays the most renowned quality standard in the world. Standardised quality has become an imperative competitive advantage on the market for all serious business organisations. The fluctuation of the number of certificates of quality indicates to what extent companies are willing to ensure the quality of their products and services to customers and clients, and how fast the domestic market is standardised and integrated into the global economy. This paper presents the results of two empirical studies. The first one focused on the analysis of the fluctuation in the number of ISO 9001:2015 certificates in the period from 2008 to 2018, while the second aimed to determine the satisfaction of leadership with the certificate. The study has shown that, during the observed period, the number of certificates of quality in Croatia fluctuated between – 18% and +22% annually. At the annual level, a certain number of companies lose their certificates or opt for decertification. For that reason, a study of the leadership’s level of satisfaction with the ISO 9001:2015 certificate was conducted using a sample of 296 certified business organisations. The study has proven that the leadership showed a high level of satisfaction with the certificate of quality and that they appreciate business organisations with certificates of quality. It demonstrates that the quality management certification has a bright future regardless of the annual fluctuation of the number of certificates.


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