Opportunity for Semantic Web Academic Position: 5 prize lectureships at the University of Sheffield

Great opportunities here for the right people:

The Engineering Faculty at the University of Sheffield has announced 5 prize lectureships across 7 Engineering departments, including the Department of Computer Science. The key criterion is the "capacity to make an outstanding contribution to the Faculty, and the University, as a research-led academic".

These lectureships come with a very attractive startup package including (from the job advert):

- an open-ended lectureship appointment within one of our seven departments.
- an allocation of funded PhD places to support your research.
- a research start-up grant of £40K to £100K.
- reduced teaching and administrative duties for the first 3 years.
- access to a mentoring scheme tailored to suit your individual needs.

Appointment can be at the Lecturer or Senior Lecturer/Reader grade.

Closing date is *** March 5 2010 ***

We are interested in applications from outstanding individuals in the area of Semantic Web to join the OAK group in the Department of Computer Science and in general the Interfaculty Activity of Research in the Digital World currently lead by the head of the group Prof. Fabio Ciravegna.

The OAK group does research on, and provide applications of, Information and Knowledge Technologies for tomorrow's Web, with a particular focus on their use for Knowledge Management. The group has current funds of over £3m coming from the EU (including the coordination of a large Integrated Project and the participation in two other large IPs and a large STREP), Industry (recent funders are Rolls-Royce plc, Kodak and Lycos Europe) and UK Research Councils (EPSRC, ERC, JISC, AHRC, TSB). The group has currently one academic (Professor Fabio Ciravegna) and around 20 post-doctoral researchers and PhD students. A senior lecturer/lecturer will join the group by the end of the academic year (we are currently interviewing).

This is an opportunity to get a permanent academic position in the Department of Computer Science. The Department has an international reputation for the quality of its research. In the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise (RAE), 65% of our research work was rated world leading or internationally excellent in terms of its originality, significance and rigour. According to the widely used "research power" measure (research quality multiplied by volume) the Department is ranked 15th out of 81 similar departments in the UK. Our research activities are split into research groups:

• Computational Systems Biology
• Creative Interaction and Media Lab
• Machine Learning
• Natural Language Processing
• Organisations, Information and Knowledge (OAK)
• Speech and Hearing
• Verification and Testing

Informal enquiries for the Semantic Web / Digital World field should be addressed to - the head of the OAK research group, Professor Fabio Ciravegna, fabio AT dcs.shef.ac.uk .

Further details and process of application are given on the official university Web page.

Professor of Language and Knowledge Technologies,
Department of Computer Science, University of Sheffield,
Regent Court, 211 Portobello, S1 4DP, Sheffield, UK
www: http://www.dcs.shef.ac.uk/~fabio/

Notes (III) for a 2010 introduction to the Health Career Model

Definition through purpose

The original purposes for the model's creation are as relevant today as they were in 1983-84:

1. To produce a curriculum development tool;
2. Help ensure holistic assessment and evaluation;
3. To support reflective practice;
4. To reduce the theory-practice gap.

Items 1-4 plus safety are all dependent in one way or another upon knowledge. Admittedly, this is a case of stating the obvious and something of a non-statement in that everything comes down to being knowledge (or nonsense). Resort to some global notion of 'knowledge' amounts to non-differentiation and this tells us nothing. On the contrary: this is how the simplicity of Hodges' model can cultivate and give rise to global complexity. This can help explain the model's potential and utility as a cognitive tool, an aide memoire, a mental prompt and structured conceptual checklist to frame:

• thought
• knowledge (ontology)
  
• perspectives
• dialogue
• problems
• strengths - weaknesses
• plans and actions
• outcomes
• and much more ...

Whether student or specialist practitioner various conceptual elements and (care) threads can be acquired, constructed, integrated and mapped from the dual (in-situ) worlds of theory and practice to the cognitive (personal - reflective) and virtual [cogeographic?]. This means the model can be used as a mental prompt helping to inform theory as in a lecture and subsequent essay; or practically during an interview or care assessment. Beyond this cognitive application, the model's produced can then also be captured and represented on paper, or as an electronic record - by various user communities. ... (Notes IV to follow)

[These are notes. If you have any thoughts, views on a new introduction to the model please get in touch:
h2cmng @ yahoo.co.uk What do you feel needs to be explained? Which audience should be addressed in the first instance? What assumptions can be made? ....? Many thanks PJ ]

Notes I intro for 2010

Notes II intro for 2010

Vacancies in telecare and assisted living at University of Portsmouth

As a result of new funding and expansion in the topic area of telecare and assisted living, the University of Portsmouth has a number of vacancies to fill.

1. A Research Assistant is required to provide technical support (hardware and software) and maintenance of equipment for a research laboratory to facilitate work in the areas of assisted living and healthcare informatics.
See http://www.port.ac.uk/vacancies/research/vacancytitle,105585,en.html
Closing date: 4th January 2010.

2. A Graduate Software Engineer is required to work on a project to develop a world-leading home healthcare product using sensing and Internet technologies.

The project is a mini Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) involving the University and PassivSystems Ltd (PSL), based in Newbury, Berkshire. You will be based at the company in Newbury but will work closely with the Centre for Healthcare Modelling and Informatics (CHMI) in Portsmouth.

See http://www.port.ac.uk/vacancies/research/vacancytitle,105299,en.html
Closing date: 11th December 2009.

3. A PhD studentship is on offer in the broad area of artificial intelligence. The intention is to research the applications of machine learning in the emerging area of assisted living with a view for machines to interact with users and their environment.

See http://www.jobs.ac.uk/job/AAD104/phd-studentship-in-artificial-intelligence-/
Closing date: 15th December 2009.

A further PhD studentship and a possible Research Fellowship in assisted living/health informatics may be advertised in the near future.

For further information on (1) and (2) above or to register to receive information about future vacancies,
contact Dr Jim Briggs (jim.briggs@port.ac.uk).
For further information on (3), contact Dr Djamel Azzi (djamel.azzi@port.ac.uk).

My source: SIHI mailist

CfP E-Health: Accessing Knowledge for Global Health

Special Issue on:

“E-Health: Accessing Knowledge for Global Health”

Guest Editor: Patricia Abbott, PhD, RN: Johns Hopkins, USA

This special issue of the KM&EL international journal is dedicated to coverage of knowledge management and information dissemination for health in under served areas. Numerous studies have demonstrated the high cost, in both financial and humanistic terms, of a lack of access to current healthcare knowledge. Many international settings are using textbooks that are seriously outdated, and practicing in ways that have been proven to be ineffective and/or dangerous. At the same time, we are seeing an explosion of information and communication technologies (ICT) that are reaching even the most remote corners of the globe. As these two trends collide, we are seeing tremendous innovation and application of KM techniques and ICT utilization to “reach and teach” in remote communities around the world. Indeed, Deaton (2004) states that:

“The health and life expectancy of the vast majority of mankind, whether they live in rich or poor countries, depends on ideas, techniques, and therapies developed elsewhere, so that it is the spread of knowledge that is the fundamental determinant of population health.”

This issue is designed to elicit both theoretical and applied papers that describe efforts to reduce international asymmetries of health information by increasing access to health knowledge bases via ICT. We are interested in theoretical papers that posit the promise and possibilities global e-health, and applied research papers that provide results of knowledge access, knowledge management, and knowledge dissemination for international health. We are particularly interested in papers in this space that focus upon application in low resource areas and/or with the medically under served. Our goal is to stimulate interest in the issues across academia, practice, industry, research and policy. We welcome focused papers from all sectors.

The topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

• Knowledge management in ICT-enabled, yet low resourced areas
• Practical usage/application of ICT for evidence based practice in global e-health
• E-health via ICT – Lessons Learned
• M-health via cellular telephony and other mechanisms – New innovations for distributing health knowledge and best practices via mobile technologies
• Managing and developing knowledge from under served areas; what can communities teach us?
• Producing culturally sensitive, feasible, and distributable best practices for ICT-enabled delivery
• Socio-cultural aspects of ICT enabled e-health
• Infrastructure challenges in global e-health in the e-health/m-health domain
• New developments, trends and approaches.

Important Dates
Submission due: 15th January, 2010
Notification of acceptance: 15th March, 2010
Publication schedule: Jun 2010 (Vol.2, No.2)

Submission Instructions
Papers must not have been published, accepted for publication, or presently be under consideration for publication elsewhere. A standard double-blind review process will be used for selecting papers to be published in this special issue. Authors should follow the instructions outlined in the KM&EL Website (see URL http://www.kmel-journal.org/ojs/index.php/online-publication/about/submissions#onlineSubmissions)

Guest Editor:
Patricia A. Abbott, PhD, RN
Director, Johns Hopkins School of Nursing, PAHO/WHO Collaborating Center for Knowledge Management;
Johns Hopkins Schools of Medicine and Nursing
Baltimore, MD USA

Electronic submission by email to Guest Editor is required.

pabbott2@son.jhmi.edu

For more information about the KM&EL, please visit the web site:
http://www.kmel-journal.org/ojs/index.php/online-publication

Reference:
Deaton, A. (2004). Health in an Age of Globalization. Available online at: https://muse.jhu.edu/journals/brookings_trade_forum/v2004/2004.1deaton.pdf

Knowledge Management & E-Learning: An International Journal (KM&EL) ISSN 2073-7904

Maintained and Developed by:
Laboratory of Knowledge Management & E-Learning
Faculty of Education, The University of Hong Kong

http://www.kmel-journal.org/ojs/index.php/online-publication/announcement/view/4

My source: GANM list

Birds in paper cages: Cognitive spaces with a little isotropy

In Consciousness Explained, Dennett (1991) provides further support for my belief in the significance of Hodges’ model:

Any of the things you have learned can contribute to any of the things you are currently confronting. That at least is the ideal. This feature is called isotropy by Fodor (1983), the power, as Plato would say, of getting the relevant birds to come, or at least to sing out, whenever they are needed. p.279.

Dennett highlights the fact that we are not isotropic. There are many often comedic instances in which people are slow or fail to fully appraise the significance of new data. This point reinforces the need and role for Hodges’ model providing not just one of Plato’s metaphorical aviaries (with knowledge in the form of the birds), but at least four (five - with spiritual claims to know-ledge).

Next spring I will return to the conceptual spaces paper I started and last saved in September 2008, how time flies! (I do finish stuff eventually - it's not easy this 'part-time' lark). As already posted on W2tQ there is more inspiration if needed. Drawing upon the cognitive science and computing literature the objectives of Peter Gardenfors’ book Conceptual Spaces are made clear from the outset:

'... is to show that a conceptual mode based on geometrical and topological representations deserves at least as much attention in cognitive science as the symbolic and associationistic approaches’. p.2 ....

'This is a book about the geometry of thought. A theory of conceptual spaces will be developed as a particular framework for representing information on the conceptual level.’ p.2.

Further reading:

Jerry A. Fodor (2000) The modularity of mind.

The Frame Problem Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.

Colour my quadrants - theme my domains

Quite a while ago a basic colour scheme emerged for the care domains - quadrants of Hodges' model. It may be useful to explain why these particular colours were adopted.


INTER-INTRAPERSONAL: [mental health, psychology, psychological therapies, philosophy, creativity, theology ...] It is often said that green is a colour that calms people, it is and must remain a constant in our lives and hence in our world. Green reminds us of nature and who we are. There should always be a place for green wherever and whenever we live, for every individual one of us, whether residing in a metropolis, village or wandering across the land, or with no land. We must hope that green (and the blue) will always be.

SCIENCES: [anatomy, physiology, physics, biochemistry, neurology, systems, process ...] Blue is a mystical and spiritual colour. It suggests the metaphysical. It is our ET-ernal umbrella that points the way to the most external other that which is outside and beyond ourselves and our comprehension. Whether it is day, night or the inbetween with the terminator passing overhead it is there - clear sky or rain. It reminds us if you look, listen and feel our frailty, the true position of our laws, preoccupations and the passage of time that we cannot understand. But still we reach out.

POLITICAL: [policy studies, law, democracy, standards, development, activism, governance, citizenry ...] Black and white was adopted here as politics is often portrayed and practiced as being polarised. It is nice (economical of effort) when decisions are literally cast in black and white terms - true or false, yes or no; however, in politics things are never clear cut (especially when claiming expenses). This is another reason for 'black and white'. Not so much for the colours as the pattern they can pose. As posted previously Michel Serres cast Harlequin as a trope for mischief maker (and more) - something we all see in politics - especially at the moment.

SOCIOLOGY: [sociology, patients & carers, the seven ages, collaborative computing, anthropology, history ...] While a warning in nature and many cultures, red was assumed for its warmth. The gathering around the flame of the community, the flame of the hearth. Vibrant. Full of life. This is red. Love, passion and courage you will find here.
Red still stands. No, runs - as a warning. The flame can become a source of chaos in the hands of the mob, when families, peoples and nations fight each other. Red is the ember that is hatred, but red the creative, innovative spark can and will win through. From darkness : To light ...

In the near future I will write more about the positional relationships between the care (knowledge) domains.

Clickstream Data Yields High-Resolution Maps of Science - PLoS ONE

Johan Bollen, Herbert Van de Sompel, Aric Hagberg, Luis Bettencourt, Ryan Chute, Marko A. Rodriguez, Lyudmila Balakireva

Abstract: Background

Intricate maps of science have been created from citation data to visualize the structure of scientific activity. However, most scientific publications are now accessed online. Scholarly web portals record detailed log data at a scale that exceeds the number of all existing citations combined. Such log data is recorded immediately upon publication and keeps track of the sequences of user requests (clickstreams) that are issued by a variety of users across many different domains. Given these advantages of log datasets over citation data, we investigate whether they can produce high-resolution, more current maps of science.

Read more...

Citation: Bollen J, Van de Sompel H, Hagberg A, Bettencourt L, Chute R, et al. (2009) Clickstream Data Yields High-Resolution Maps of Science. PLoS ONE 4(3): e4803. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0004803

Editor: Alan Ruttenberg, Science Commons, United States of America

Received: June 25, 2008; Accepted: February 6, 2009; Published: March 11, 2009

Additional links:

Nature: news; Web usage data outline map of knowledge

Arthur M. Sackler Colloquium on "Mapping Knowledge Domains"

Open University: Compendium

Hodges' model SCIENCES domain links (Visualization)

My source: Humanist list