Building a Human Health Risk Assessment Ontology (RsO): A Proposed Framework

Over the last decade the health and environmental research communities have made significant progress in collecting and improving access to genomic, toxicology, exposure, health, and disease data useful to health risk assessment. One of the barriers to applying these growing volumes of information in fields such as risk assessment is the lack of informatics tools to organize, curate, and evaluate thousands of journal publications and hundreds of databases to provide new insights on relationships among exposure, hazard, and disease burden. Many fields are developing ontologies as a way of organizing and analyzing large amounts of complex information from multiple scientific disciplines. Ontologies include a vocabulary of terms and concepts with defined logical relationships to each other. Building from the recently published exposure ontology and other relevant health and environmental ontologies, this article proposes an ontology for health risk assessment (RsO) that provides a structural framework for organizing risk assessment information and methods. The RsO is anchored by eight major concepts that were either identified by exploratory curations of the risk literature or the exposure‐ontology working group as key for describing the risk assessment domain. These concepts are: (1) stressor, (2) receptor, (3) outcome, (4) exposure event, (5) dose‐response approach, (6) dose‐response metric, (7) uncertainty, and (8) measure of risk. We illustrate the utility of these concepts for the RsO with example curations of published risk assessments for ionizing radiation, arsenic in drinking water, and persistent pollutants in salmon.     

基于UML扩展机制的本体模型的可视化研究

首先给出本体的基本模型,并介绍了基于RDF的本体描述语言--DAML,然后比较UML与DAML之间的相似性与不同之处,并指出利用UML表示本体模型的关键问题所在,分析Baclawski等人UML扩展模型的不足,最后提出一种新的UML元模型的扩展模型.     

电子公共大脑本体系统设计

本体系统方法是目前在知识管理、人工智能等领域得到广泛应用的新型系统方法。本文通过对支持群体交互知识管理的电子公共大脑本体系统设计的案例,对本体系统方法的概念、构成和应用方法作了一个示例性介绍。     

Lessons learned from Toulouse and Buncefield disasters: from risk analysis failures to the identification of atypical scenarios through a better knowledge management

The recent occurrence of severe major accidents has brought to light flaws and limitations of hazard identification (HAZID) processes performed for safety reports, as in the accidents at Toulouse (France) and Buncefield (UK), where the accident scenarios that occurred were not captured by HAZID techniques. This study focuses on this type of atypical accident scenario deviating from normal expectations. The main purpose is to analyze the examples of atypical accidents mentioned and to attempt to identify them through the application of a well-known methodology such as the bow-tie analysis. To these aims, the concept of atypical event is accurately defined. Early warnings, causes, consequences, and occurrence mechanisms of the specific events are widely studied and general failures of risk assessment, management, and governance isolated. These activities contribute to outline a set of targeted recommendations, addressing transversal common deficiencies and also demonstrating how a better management of knowledge from the study of past events can support future risk assessment processes in the identification of atypical accident scenarios. Thus, a new methodology is not suggested; rather, a specific approach coordinating a more effective use of experience and available information is described, to suggest that lessons to be learned from past accidents can be effectively translated into actions of prevention.     

Frontiers of research in international business

Multinational enterprises (MNEs) are networked firms whose subsidiaries act as nodes embedded in a variety of local contexts. This allows them to tap into many local systems of innovation to access diverse knowledge bases and integrate them to create new competencies. Currently technology is altering our conception of space and forcing us to recognize that it is a multi-dimensional concept, incorporating geographic space, technological space and personal network space. At the corporate level, MNE managers need to understand comparative strategic management, constantly looking for arbitrage opportunities that arise due to differences in resources, capabilities and institutions across the local contexts. At the functional level, in order for the MNE to integrate knowledge from diverse geographic locations, managers must recognize that valuable knowledge resides in invisible communities of practice where narrow technological specializations, personal connections and information sharing are critical means of access.     

Major Accidents (Gray Swans) Likelihood Modeling Using Accident Precursors and Approximate Reasoning

Compared to the remarkable progress in risk analysis of normal accidents, the risk analysis of major accidents has not been so well‐established, partly due to the complexity of such accidents and partly due to low probabilities involved. The issue of low probabilities normally arises from the scarcity of major accidents’ relevant data since such accidents are few and far between. In this work, knowing that major accidents are frequently preceded by accident precursors, a novel precursor‐based methodology has been developed for likelihood modeling of major accidents in critical infrastructures based on a unique combination of accident precursor data, information theory, and approximate reasoning. For this purpose, we have introduced an innovative application of information analysis to identify the most informative near accident of a major accident. The observed data of the near accident were then used to establish predictive scenarios to foresee the occurrence of the major accident. We verified the methodology using offshore blowouts in the Gulf of Mexico, and then demonstrated its application to dam breaches in the United Sates.     

Regional Risk Assessment for Point Source Pollution Based on a Water Quality Model of the Taipu River,China

Point source pollution is one of the main threats to regional environmental health. Based on a water quality model, a methodology to assess the regional risk of point source pollution is proposed. The assessment procedure includes five parts: (1) identifying risk source units and estimating source emissions using Monte Carlo algorithms; (2) observing hydrological and water quality data of the assessed area, and evaluating the selected water quality model; (3) screening out the assessment endpoints and analyzing receptor vulnerability with the Choquet fuzzy integral algorithm; (4) using the water quality model introduced in the second step to predict pollutant concentrations for various source emission scenarios and analyzing hazards of risk sources; and finally, (5) using the source hazard values and receptor vulnerability scores to estimate overall regional risk. The proposed method, based on the Water Quality Analysis Simulation Program (WASP), was applied in the region of the Taipu River, which is in the Taihu Basin, China. Results of source hazard and receptor vulnerability analysis allowed us to describe aquatic ecological, human health, and socioeconomic risks individually, and also integrated risks in the Taipu region, from a series of risk curves. Risk contributions of sources to receptors were ranked, and the spatial distribution of risk levels was presented. By changing the input conditions, we were able to estimate risks for a range of scenarios. Thus, the proposed procedure may also be used by decisionmakers for long‐term dynamic risk prediction.     

基于本体论的企业默会知识管理系统结构

默会知识的转化与共享一直是学术界和应用领域重点研究且难以突破的问题。本文分析了企业内默会知识的转化过程,提出了基于本体的企业默会知识转化模型和管理框架。基于此框架,建立了一个基于网络的默会知识交流共享平台,给出了基于本体论的企业默会知识管理系统结构。     

Probabilistic Analysis of the Inadvertent Reentry of the Cassini Spacecraft''s Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generators

As part of the launch approval process, the Interagency Nuclear Safety Review Panel provides an independent safety assessment of space missions--such as the Cassini mission--that carry a significant amount of nuclear materials. This survey article describes potential accident scenarios that might lead to release of fuel from an accidental reentry during an Earth swingby maneuver, the probabilities of such scenarios, and their consequences. To illustrate the nature of calculations used in this area, examples are presented of probabilistic models to obtain both the probability of scenario events and the resultant source terms of such scenarios. Because of large extrapolations from the current knowledge base, the analysis emphasizes treatment of uncertainties.     

市场机遇发现的支持模型及其应用

采用信息技术支持企业的市场机遇发现是企业信息化的深层次需求.本文从认知的角度分析了市场机遇鲻发现的过程、思维活动和领域知识,提出了支持市场机遇发现全过程的三维模型,建立了基于领域本体的市场机遇发现概念模型,提出并分析了其中领域本体实例生成与合并遗传方法,给出了应用实例.     

Textual data transformations using natural language processing for risk assessment

Underlying information about failure, including observations made in free text, can be a good source for understanding, analyzing, and extracting meaningful information for determining causation. The unstructured nature of natural language expression demands advanced methodology to identify its underlying features. There is no available solution to utilize unstructured data for risk assessment purposes. Due to the scarcity of relevant data, textual data can be a vital learning source for developing a risk assessment methodology. This work addresses the knowledge gap in extracting relevant features from textual data to develop cause–effect scenarios with minimal manual interpretation. This study applies natural language processing and text-mining techniques to extract features from past accident reports. The extracted features are transformed into parametric form with the help of fuzzy set theory and utilized in Bayesian networks as prior probabilities for risk assessment. An application of the proposed methodology is shown in microbiologically influenced corrosion-related incident reports available from the Pipeline and Hazardous Material Safety Administration database. In addition, the trained named entity recognition (NER) model is verified on eight incidents, showing a promising preliminary result for identifying all relevant features from textual data and demonstrating the robustness and applicability of the NER method. The proposed methodology can be used in domain-specific risk assessment to analyze, predict, and prevent future mishaps, ameliorating overall process safety.     

On the Development of Threshold Criteria for Action for Light Water Reactors

A survey of recently proposed threshold criteria for regulatory action on light water reactors (LWRs) is presented together with some commentary. This is followed by a new proposal for threshold action criteria which includes some different risk attributes than are found in previous criteria. Some preliminary risk values are suggested for the criteria and then evaluated in terms of a few hypothetical accident scenarios. Finally, several licensing issues are examined in terms of various threshold action criteria.     

基于本体系统的知识管理人工智能研究

分析了知识管理中的信息组织难题和群体过程非结构化特性的本质意义. 介绍了用于解 决人工智能中非结构化问题的本体系统方法. 并通过支持群体交互知识管理的电子公共大脑 本体系统设计的案例,对本体系统方法的概念、构成和应用方法作了具有典型意义的示例性 介绍.     

Information Sources as Explanatory Variables for the Belgian Health‐Related Risk Perception of the Fukushima Nuclear Accident

The media play an important role in risk communication, providing information about accidents, both nearby and far away. Each media source has its own presentation style, which could influence how the audience perceives the presented risk. This study investigates the explanatory power of 12 information sources (traditional media, new media, social media, and interpersonal communication) for the perceived risk posed by radiation released from the damaged Fukushima nuclear power plant on respondents’ own health and that of the population in general. The analysis controlled for attitude toward nuclear energy, gender, education, satisfaction with the media coverage, and duration of attention paid to the coverage. The study uses a large empirical data set from a public opinion survey, which is representative for the Belgian population with respect to six sociodemographic variables. Results show that three information sources are significant regressors of perceived health‐related risk of the nuclear accident: television, interpersonal communication, and the category of miscellaneous online sources. More favorable attitudes toward nuclear power, longer attention to the coverage, and higher satisfaction with the provided information lead to lower risk perception. Taken together, the results suggest that the media can indeed have a modest influence on how the audience perceives a risk.     

A dual signal model of pride displays in organizations

Pride is often felt in the work context, but should it be shown to others? Pride displays communicate one’s own success and status, but can show a lack of interpersonal sensitivity. This double-edged nature of pride is not fully understood in organizational contexts; we do not know under what conditions pride displays are beneficial, or detrimental, to career advancement, team dynamics, and leader influence. In this article we integrate signaling theory with sensory habituation and sensitization concepts to develop a new contextualized model of pride at work. Specifically, we propose that pride displays are signals for two primary social judgments that have important implications for organizations: competence and warmth. We make the case that, while pride display under conditions of information asymmetry (lack of information about the sender) signals competence, repeated displays hasten habituation to that signal and instead foster sensitization to a (low) interpersonal warmth signal. Furthermore, additional characteristics of the sender, receiver and audience determine the signaling of these two social judgments from pride. This model advances theory by contextualizing the social function of pride, and suggests new research directions for emotion regulation, impression management, and the rise and fall in social hierarchies, with implications for newcomers, teamwork, and leadership in today’s workplace.     

基于知识情境的知识重用与创新机制研究

知识情境是知识产生和应用的具体背景和环境.本文提出用情境图为知识情境建模,通过本体概念匹配获得结点相似度,推算情境相似度,进而得到与问题情境相似的历史情境;提出补情境及相似度向量的概念,通过相似度向量分析,获得相似情境的补情境,从而建立一种将相似情境与其补情境进行整合的知识创新机制;建立基于知识情境的知识重用与创新管理系统框架,系统由查询模型生成、情境库和知识库及情境匹配及分析等模块组成,实现知识的重用和创新管理;给出一个应用实例,说明系统应用于汽车概念设计的基本过程.     

Uncertainty,pluralism, and the knowledge-based theory of the firm: From J.-C. Spender’s contribution to a socio-cognitive approach

J.-C. Spender’s award-winning, knowledge-based theory of the firm is based on four premises: (1) The firm can be sufficiently understood as a system of knowledge, (2) explicit and implicit knowing can be clearly dissociated, (3) organizations are conceived as cognizing entities, and (4) intuition shaped by shared cultural practices is a superior source of managerial knowledge. This line of reasoning represents a social constructionist view of the enactment, transfer, and storage of knowledge according to which managerial knowledge is largely tacitly shaped by industry recipes and the firm’s socio-cultural conventions and other social processes. Although comprehensive in scope, we argue that a knowledge-based theory of the firm needs to integrate a cognitivist approach that includes the synergetic production of tacit and explicit knowledge, the role of reflective thinking in resolving strategic uncertainties, and the interaction between the individual and the social. This socio-cognitive theory of the firm posits that sustained competitive advantage of a firm is founded on the ability to align knowledge internally within the firm as well as externally with its stakeholders through the individual sense-making of feedback from other individuals.     

Estimation of the Likelihood of Fecal–Oral HEV Transmission Among Pigs

Sources for human hepatitis E virus (HEV) infections of genotype 3 are largely unknown. Pigs are potential animal reservoirs for HEV. Intervention at pig farms may be desired when pigs are confirmed as a source for human infections, requiring knowledge about transmission routes. These routes are currently understudied. The current study aims to quantify the likelihood of pig feces in causing new HEV infections in pigs due to oral ingestion. We estimated the daily infection risk for pigs by modeling the fate of HEV in the fecal–oral (F–O) pathway. Using parameter values deemed most plausible by the authors based on current knowledge the daily risk of infection was 0.85 (95% interval: 0.03–1). The associated expected number of new infections per day was ～4 (2.5% limit 0.1, the 97% limit tending to infinity) compared to 0.7 observed in a transmission experiment with pigs, and the likelihood of feces causing the transmission approached 1. In alternative scenarios, F–O transmission of HEV was also very likely to cause new infections. By reducing the total value of all explanatory variables by 2 orders of magnitude, the expected numbers of newly infected pigs approached the observed number. The likelihood of F–O transmission decreased by decreasing parameter values, allowing for at most 94% of infections being caused by additional transmission routes. Nevertheless, in all scenarios F–O transmission was estimated to contribute to HEV transmission. Thus, despite the difficulty in infecting pigs with HEV via oral inoculation, the F–O route is likely to cause HEV transmission among pigs.     

Relational Leadership Theory: Exploring the social processes of leadership and organizing

Relational leadership is a relatively new term in the leadership literature, and because of this, its meaning is open to interpretation. In the present article I describe two perspectives of relational leadership: an entity perspective that focuses on identifying attributes of individuals as they engage in interpersonal relationships, and a relational perspective that views leadership as a process of social construction through which certain understandings of leadership come about and are given privileged ontology. These approaches can be complementary, but their implications for study and practice are quite different. After reviewing leadership research relative to these two perspectives I offer Relational Leadership Theory (RLT) as an overarching framework for the study of leadership as a social influence process through which emergent coordination (e.g., evolving social order) and change (e.g., new approaches, values, attitudes, behaviors, ideologies) are constructed and produced. This framework addresses relationships both as an outcome of investigation (e.g., How are leadership relationships produced?) and a context for action (e.g., How do relational dynamics contribute to structuring?). RLT draws from both entity and relational ontologies and methodologies to more fully explore the relational dynamics of leadership and organizing.     

Knowledge Creation within Industrial Systems

Intangible resources are the source of competitive advantage in theknowledge economy. Knowledge and intellectual capital within firms havegathered worldwide attention; theories and methods for knowledgecreation management have been developed for organizations and alliances.Economic reality shows the importance of industrial districts becausesocial systems in districts provide dynamic contexts of multifacetedrelationships. These dynamic contexts or district ba (Japanesefor place) enable firms to create and harness knowledge that resides innetwork relationships.The paper develops a theoretical frame of four kinds of district ba thatsupport four knowledge processes. Organizational networks within andbetween different district ba are conceptualized. The creationof knowledge within district ba is used to analyze differentlevels of interaction between firms in the same or different districtsand in the same or different industries. The case study of the JETROlocal-to-local program between Ishikawa prefecture in Japan and Como andVarese in Italy is used to illustrate the theoretical concepts. Districtba are used to analyze the knowledge creation dynamics withinand between districts and to identify possible strategies for districtgovernance.