Extending the enterprise evolution contextualisation model

Enterprise engineering (EE) emerged as a new discipline to encourage comprehensive and consistent enterprise design. Since EE is multidisciplinary, various researchers study enterprises from different perspectives, which resulted in a plethora of applicable literature and terminology, but without shared meaning. Previous research specifically focused on the fragmentation of knowledge for designing and aligning the information and communication technology (ICT) subsystem of the enterprise in order to support the business organisation subsystem of the enterprise. As a solution for this fragmented landscape, a business-IT alignment model (BIAM) was developed inductively from existing business-IT alignment approaches. Since most of the existing alignment frameworks addressed the alignment between the ICT subsystem and the business organisation subsystem, BIAM also focused on the alignment between these two subsystems. Yet, the emerging EE discipline intends to address a broader scope of design, evident in the existing approaches that incorporate a broader scope of design/alignment/governance. A need was identified to address the knowledge fragmentation of the EE knowledge base by adapting BIAM to an enterprise evolution contextualisation model (EECM), to contextualise a broader set of approaches, as identified by Lapalme. The main contribution of this article is the incremental development and evaluation of EECM. We also present guiding indicators/prerequisites for applying EECM as a contextualisation tool.     

An intelligent service matching method for mechanical equipment condition monitoring using the fibre Bragg grating sensor network

Due to the advantages of being able to function under harsh environmental conditions and serving as a distributed condition information source in a networked monitoring system, the fibre Bragg grating (FBG) sensor network has attracted considerable attention for equipment online condition monitoring. To provide an overall conditional view of the mechanical equipment operation, a networked service-oriented condition monitoring framework based on FBG sensing is proposed, together with an intelligent matching method for supporting monitoring service management. In the novel framework, three classes of progressive service matching approaches, including service-chain knowledge database service matching, multi-objective constrained service matching and workflow-driven human-interactive service matching, are developed and integrated with an enhanced particle swarm optimisation (PSO) algorithm as well as a workflow-driven mechanism. Moreover, the manufacturing domain ontology, FBG sensor network structure and monitoring object are considered to facilitate the automatic matching of condition monitoring services to overcome the limitations of traditional service processing methods. The experimental results demonstrate that FBG monitoring services can be selected intelligently, and the developed condition monitoring system can be re-built rapidly as new equipment joins the framework. The effectiveness of the service matching method is also verified by implementing a prototype system together with its performance analysis.     

An Epistemological Reflection on Social and Solidarity Economy

Social and Solidarity Economy (SSE) is emerging as life affirming solutions to the global crises through the multiple ways people locally reinvent economic life on the margins of the capitalist system based on values of solidarity, reciprocity and sustainability. Although the SSE builds on a strong foundation of real practices and institutions of economic transformation as the way forward for us, this paper argues that this world of practice is in need of its theory to frame discourses and engage with the bigger picture with confidence as an alternative to the dominant economic paradigm. The author argues that the orthodox economics, with its ontological construct of the homo economicus, Cartesian dichotomy and logical positivist epistemology severely constrains our abilities to understand and appreciate economic alternatives based on ‘other’ rationalities. Hence, there is a need for an epistemological revolution to construct a coherent theoretical framework from the wreckages of the neoclassical economics for the SSE. This paper seeks to outline the basic structure and the key elements of the ontological and the epistemological framework for this ‘science-in-the-making’ as a step to stimulate further debate for a paradigm revolution.     

Comments on the Institutionalist View of Reaganomics

Gender inequality is caused by numerous factors, among which one may find traditional division of labor, family, religion and many other institutions. The state also influences a position of women in society and economy. Nowadays most western states seem to engage in the promotion of equal status of men and women. The European Union (EU) is known for its policy of gender mainstreaming that has been implemented in member states. The EU, however, promotes a neoliberal approach in the economy that seems to be in contradiction to the promotion of gender equality.

In Poland, tendencies to liberate, privatize and deregulate are warmly welcomed as cures for economic underdevelopment. Gender equality, on the other hand, has been challenged as a relic of the former political system. In this paper, the author attempts to answer the question whether macroeconomic policy promoted by the EU influences the status of women in Poland.     

语文课程审美教育本体论的理论变迁

我国语文课程审美教育本体论的理论变迁大致经历了三个阶段:一是延续了两千多年的以儒家思想为核心,以道家思想为补充的诗教课程审美教育;二是近百年来语文审美教育的曲折发展;三是新课改背景下语文审美教育的理论探索。纵观这三个阶段语文审美教育的发展,可以认为,语文课程审美教育本体论探究经历了关注主体生命(文质彬彬的君子,无为而无不为)——成就"理""心"(存天理,灭人欲)——提倡科学理性——重视主体生命的发展历程。     

Web content mining for comparing corporate and third‐party online reporting: a case study on solid waste management

This study investigates the coverage of solid waste management on 1142 websites maintained by companies, news media and non‐governmental organizations to validate an automated approach to content and language analysis. First, a frequency analysis of waste management terms sheds light on the breadth and depth of their environmental discourses, revealing that corporate and media attention to waste management is small compared with that of non‐governmental organizations. Second, an investigation of their attitudes toward waste management suggests that companies avoid negative information in environmental communication, unlike news media or non‐governmental organizations. Ultimately, an automated tool for ontology building is employed to gain insights into companies' shared understanding of waste management. The ontology obtained indicates that companies conceptualize waste management as a business process rather than framing it from an ecological perspective, which is in line with findings from previous research. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.     

ENERGY EFFICIENCY EVALUATION IN MANUFACTURING THROUGH AN ONTOLOGY‐REPRESENTED KNOWLEDGE BASE

Improving energy efficiency in a manufacturing company through an energy management system requires active participation of different stakeholders and involvement of different organizational entities and technical processes. Interoperability of stakeholders and entities is the key factor to achieve a successful implementation of an energy management system. Researchers have been developing approaches in applying ontologies to address interoperability issues among humans as well as machines. Ontologies have also been used for knowledge representation in different domains, such as energy management and manufacturing. In recent years, researchers have developed knowledge‐based intelligent energy management systems in buildings, especially households, which use ontologies for knowledge representation. In the manufacturing domain, ontologies have been used for knowledge management in order to provide a common formal understanding between the stakeholders, who have different background knowledge. This paper proposes an approach to apply ontology to allow knowledge‐based energy efficiency evaluation in manufacturing companies. The ontology provides a formal knowledge representation that addresses the interoperability issues due to different human stakeholders as well as machines involved in the energy management system of the company. This paper also describes the methods used to construct and to process the ontology. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Conceptual Knowledge Markup Language: An introduction

Conceptual Knowledge Markup Language (CKML) is an application of XML. Earlier versions of CKML followed rather exclusively the philosophy of Conceptual Knowledge Processing (CKP), a principled approach to knowledge representation and data analysis that “advocates methods and instruments of conceptual knowledge processing which support people in their rational thinking, judgment and acting and promote critical discussion”. The new version of CKML continues to follow this approach, but also incorporates various principles, insights and techniques from Information Flow (IF), the logical design of distributed systems. Among other things, this allows diverse communities of discourse to compare their own information structures, as coded in logical theories, with that of other communities that share a common generic ontology. CKML incorporates the CKP ideas of concept lattice and formal context, along with the IF ideas of classification (= formal context), infomorphism, theory, interpretation and local logic. Ontology Markup Language (OML), a subset of CKML that is a self-sufficient markup language in its own right, follows the principles and ideas of Conceptual Graphs (CG). OML is used for structuring the specifications and axiomatics of metadata into ontologies. OML incorporates the CG ideas of concept, conceptual relation, conceptual graph, conceptual context, participants and ontology. The link from OML to CKML is the process of conceptual scaling, which is the interpretive transformation of ontologically structured knowledge to conceptual structured knowledge. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

An approach for formalising the supply chain operations

Reference models play an important role in the knowledge management of the various complex collaboration domains (such as supply chain networks). However, they often show a lack of semantic precision and, they are sometimes incomplete. In this article, we present an approach to overcome semantic inconsistencies and incompleteness of the Supply Chain Operations Reference (SCOR) model and hence improve its usefulness and expand the application domain. First, we describe a literal web ontology language (OWL) specification of SCOR concepts (and related tools) built with the intention to preserve the original approach in the classification of process reference model entities, and hence enable the effectiveness of usage in original contexts. Next, we demonstrate the system for its exploitation, in specific – tools for SCOR framework browsing and rapid supply chain process configuration. Then, we describe the SCOR-Full ontology, its relations with relevant domain ontology and show how it can be exploited for improvement of SCOR ontological framework competence. Finally, we elaborate the potential impact of the presented approach, to interoperability of systems in supply chain networks.     

基于语言本体库的中文信息检索系统的研究

基于语言本体库WordNet,在传统检索技术的基础上研究了中文信息检索系统,在语义层次上实现了信息检索,提高了检索效率。