Publications

Communications scholars have been challenging the universality of Eurocentric scholarship, which they argue to be a form of intellectual imperialism imposing its provincial ideals and masquerading these as universal. As an answer to Eurocentricity, Asiacentricity proposes to place Asian values and ideals at the center of inquiry to see Asian phenomena from the standpoint of Asians as subjects and agents. This article critiques this Asiacentric agenda and critically examines the implications and premises of this paradigm. It suggests instead that a culture-centric paradigm be adopted to avoid an Asian version of the Eurocentricity crisis. The article advocates the adoption of a more harmonious perspective in light of the convergence of global cultures and calls for approaching research deficiencies as a global community of communication scholars rather than one divided along ethnic fault lines. The culture-centric approach is proposed as a meta-theory that is non-polarizing by nature through its placement of culture at the center of inquiry. To avoid the creation of polarity, culture-centricity seeks to encompass the contradictions and ambivalences as well as other diverse cultural representations. This article argues for a non-polarizing approach so that communication scholars can theorize without ideological bias or artificial boundaries created by arbitrary definitions of what constitutes East or West.

Communications scholars have been challenging the universality of Eurocentric scholarship, which they argue to be a form of intellectual imperialism imposing its provincial ideals and masquerading these as universal. As an answer to Eurocentricity, Asiacentricity proposes to place Asian values and ideals at the center of inquiry to see Asian phenomena from the standpoint of Asians as subjects and agents. This article critiques this Asiacentric agenda and critically examines the implications and premises of this paradigm. It suggests instead that a culture-centric paradigm be adopted to avoid an Asian version of the Eurocentricity crisis. The article advocates the adoption of a more harmonious perspective in light of the convergence of global cultures and calls for approaching research deficiencies as a global community of communication scholars rather than one divided along ethnic fault lines. The culture-centric approach is proposed as a meta-theory that is non-polarizing by nature through its placement of culture at the center of inquiry. To avoid the creation of polarity, culture-centricity seeks to encompass the contradictions and ambivalences as well as other diverse cultural representations. This article argues for a non-polarizing approach so that communication scholars can theorize without ideological bias or artificial boundaries created by arbitrary definitions of what constitutes East or West.

 This document provides a formal model for Knowledge-Based Systems(KBS). It outlines the formal modelling of the different components of a Rule-Based System (RBS). Initially abstract, the model becomes more concrete in a sequence of refinements., naturally evolving to address such aspects of a RBS as knowledge representation, mode of reasoning, consistency. An example of instantiation of the general model in order to provide a particular RBS is also shown. The problem dealt with is about the choice of satisfying insurance policies for a given customer. An informal description of this application domain is given in an appendix.

This paper presents the rationale behind the utilization of a Moodle Learning Management System for the facilitation of a blended learning approach in our Informatics department. We present and analyze the steps followed in order to replace the prior decentralized organizational structure of the courses, which consisted of a multitude of different and incompatible systems. Our main goal was to implement a single system, which would be easy to operate, maintain, and update, and which would cater for the variety of instructor and stu-dent needs. Furthermore, we present in detail evaluation data of the new system. The analysis of the results serves to confirm the success of this department-wide migration.

This paper presents the rationale behind the utilization of the Moodle Learning Management System for blended learning in our Informatics Department and examines the steps followed, to replace the prior decentralized course organizational structure which consisted of a multitude of different systems. Our main goal was to implement a single, easy-to-operate, easy-to-maintain system, able to support students’ and instructors’ needs in all the courses. Further-more, we present data which describe the pilot study of the Moodle implementation for the first semester and make evident the success of the department-wide migration.

Process algebras like CSP provide a convenient intermediate-level formalism for the design of concurrent systems by allowing processes to be combined in parallel in such a way that the designer abstracts synchronization mechanisms and simultaneity of events. However some purposes require potential simultaneity to be made explicit. One approach is to produce new semantics models encapsulating that information. The approach taken here is to use the standard models and the CSP tool, FDR, to simulate a process in such a way to reveal potentially-simultaneous events. The simulation is achieved by a construction that splits events into start and end events and monitors the result in a manner faithful to the original process. The method is applied to determine pairs of possibly concurrent events and to compute maximal simultaneity in a CSP design.

We present a mathematical model of class graphs, object graphs and state graphs which naturally capture the essential oo features. A small-step operational semantics of oo programs is defined in the style of classical structural operational semantics, in which an execution step of a command is defined as a transition from one state graph to another obtained by simple operations on graphs. To validate this semantics, we give it an implementation in Java. This implementation can also be used for simulation and validation of oo programs, with the visualization of state graph transitions during the execution. A distinct feature of this semantics is location or address independent. Properties of objects and oo programs can be described as properties of graphs in terms of relations of navigation paths (or attribute strings).

 We present a graph-based model of a type system and an operational semantics for an object-oriented programming language. In this model, we define class graphs, object graphs and state graphs that naturally capture the essential oo features. The type system checks whether an expression, a command or a program is type-correct, based on its class graph and type context, which is a graph too. The operational semantics is a small-step one defined in the style of classical structural operational semantics, in which an execution step of a command is defined as a transition from one state graph to another obtained by simple operations on graphs. Both the type system and the semantics are fully implemented. On the one hand, working out the implementation has helped us to understand the semantics to make sure our definition is correct. On the other hand, the implementation will be used as the basis for our future development of simulation and validation techniques for oo programs, with the visualization of stage graph transitions during the execution. The motivation of this work is the development of techniques for reasoning about properties of oo programs stated in a logic of graphs. We show the promises and feasibility of this by formulating a range of assertions about objects.

We present a graph-based model of a generic type system for an oo language. The type system supports the features of recursive types, generics and interfaces, which are commonly found in modern oo languages such as Java. In the classical graph theory, we define type graphs, instantiation graphs and conjunction graphs that naturally illustrate the relations among types, generics and interfaces within complex oo programs. The model employs a combination of onymous and anonymous nodes to represent respectively types that are identified as names and structures, and defines graph-based relations and operations on types including subtyping, equivalence, conjunction and instantiation. Algorithms based on the graph structures are designed for the implementation of the type system. We believe that this type system is important for the development of a graph-based logical foundation of a formal method for verification of and reasoning about oo programs.

Model-driven architecture (MDA) has become a main stream technology for software-intensive system design. The main engineering principle behind it is that the inherent complexity of software development can only be mastered by building, analyzing and manipulating system models. MDA also deals with system complexity by providing component-based design techniques, allowing independent component design, implementation and deployment, and then system integration and reconfiguration based on component interfaces. The model of a system in any stage is an integration of models of different viewpoints. Therefore, for a model-driven method to be applied effectively, it must provide a body of techniques and an integrated suite of tools for model construction, validation, and transformation. This requires a number of modeling notations for the specification of different concerns and viewpoints of the system. These notations should have formally defined syntaxes and a unified theory of semantics. The underlying theory of the method is needed to underpin the development of tools and correct use of tools in software development, as well as to formally verify and reason about properties of systems in mission-critical applications. The modeling notations, techniques, and tools must be designed so that they can be used seamlessly in supporting development activities and documentation of artifacts in software design processes. This article presents such a method, called the rCOS, focusing on the models of a system at different stages in a software development process, their semantic integration, and how they are constructed, analyzed, transformed, validated, and verified.

We present a graph-based model of a generic type system for an OO language. The type system supports the features of recursive types, generics and interfaces, which are commonly found in modern OO languages such as Java. In the classical graph theory, we define type graphs, instantiation graphs and conjunction graphs that naturally illustrate the relations among types, generics and interfaces within complex OO programs. The model employs a combination of nominal and anonymous nodes to represent respectively types that are identified by names and structures, and defines graph-based relations and operations on types including equivalence, subtyping, conjunction and instantiation. Algorithms based on the graph structures are designed for the implementation of the type system. We believe that this type system is important for the development of a graphbased logical foundation of a formal method for verification of and reasoning about OO programs.

In well-defined domains such as Physics, Mathematics, and Chemistry, solutions to a posed problem can objectively be classified as correct or incorrect. In ill-defined domains such as medicine, the classification of solutions to a patient problem as correct or incorrect is much more complex. Typical tutoring systems accept only a small set of approved solutions for each problem scenario fed to the system. Plausible student solutions that fall outside the scope of this small set of approved solutions are rejected as being incorrect, even though these solutions may be acceptable or close to acceptable. This leads to brittleness in the evaluation of student solutions. This paper describes a tutoring system for medical problem-based learning (PBL), which can accept a wide variety of plausible solutions without placing an extensive burden on knowledge acquisition. A widely available medical knowledge source is deployed as a domain ontology, and concept relationships in the ontology are used to make inferences and expand the space of plausible solutions beyond the scope of solutions explicitly provided to the system. Parent-child relationships are used to infer generalized solutions, whereas relationships of synonymy are used to infer alternate solutions. Evaluations of the system after expanding the solution space indicate accuracy close to that of human experts, who agreed among themselves with Pearson Correlation Coefficient of 0.48 and p < 0.05. The system precision dropped by 32%, while the recall increased by five times. The geometric mean of sensitivity and specificity was increased by 0.33.

Intelligent tutoring systems assist medical faculty in training and equipping students with the required clinical reasoning skills. Plausible student solutions to a given problem are rejected by tutoring systems as being incorrect, if they do not match a specific solution accepted by the tutoring system. This leads to brittleness in evaluating student solutions. In this paper we describe a combination of knowledge base expansion and exploitation of existing knowledge structure to enhance robustness in an intelligent tutoring system for medical problem-based learning using UMLS. We present a tutoring system that enriches the solution space by collating different plausible solutions and exploiting the knowledge structure in UMLS to offer students a broader scope of reasoning.

Understanding and describing professional practice, especially in Engineering and the Sciences,  has always been at the heart of research in Professional Communication. Several significant field  research projects have showed us that content knowledge alone is not sufficient to claim disciplinary expertise; a rhetorical understanding of the discipline and its ways of thinking is essential in achieving full participation in the field. Most professionals would expect that such a sophisticated approach can only be learned through on-the-job training or opportunities to interact with practitioners within authentic disciplinary contexts. Although this can certainly be the case in many instances, we argue that a rhetorical understanding can be enacted even within a freshman writing classroom. The results of our content and rhetorical analyses of student work from the beginning and the end of a course on academic writing with the theme of sustainability show that students were able in one semester to write in discipline-appropriate ways and understand the rhetorical strategies necessary to become part of a disciplinary conversation.  The implications of our findings can extend into the way we design courses in basic writing or professional communication and the ways we can use pre-assessment data to drive our course design decisions.