Marjan Družovec

SIMULATION OF LINE SCALE CONTAMINATION IN CALIBRATION UNCERTAINTY MODEL

Precise calibration of quartz line scales is very important for assuring traceability of microscopic measurements. Very significant influence in calibration uncertainty budget is represented by uncertainty of line centre detection. Line centre is usually detected through video signal processing using different types of algorithms. This paper is presenting calibration procedure that was developed in the Laboratory for Production Measurement at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering in Maribor. It is focused in uncertainty analysis and especially in the influence of line scale contamination on determination of line centre position. Different types of line scale contamination like dirt spots, scratches, line edge incorrectness, and line intensity were simulated in order to test the ability of the line centre detection algorithm to eliminate such influences from the measurement results.

Cultural awareness in social media

The increasing availability of the Web has been breaking down communication limitations in society and enabling the easy transcending of physical borders. Additionally, the emergence of social media like forums, blogs, wikis, podcasts, etc., is bringing technology closer to people who are not experts. By using global communication systems, people are changing continents, countries, regions, cultures and languages very easily, so easily that they are mostly not aware that they are mobile in a virtual world. To bring connections and communications even closer to people, the necessary tools were developed to support the needs of users in different countries and language groups (i.e. the translation of tools into national languages). However, less support was given to differences in cultures. Users of these tools and collaborative communities have to be aware that they are writing, chatting, presenting, to/with other users who could be members of different language groups and cultural communities [22]. Language barriers are usually bridged by common languages like English, but we do not have any common or general culture. People using social media primarily collect cultural and language examinations through their own experiences and general mobility: by travelling, working and studying. Nevertheless, they can also gain additional knowledge on languages, cultures and cultural awareness through social media itself and through other collaborative virtual communities in which they participate. But how much can we trust different categories of social media, such as wikis for example? The quality and certainty of available materials remains an open question. For that reason, we suggest the use of authorized materials already available over the Web and in different virtual communities, but not necessarily social media. Some suggestions supporting this idea will be presented in the paper and oriented to two EU-supported projects: ValeurTech [1], [2] and ELLEIEC [6].

Internationalization Content in Intelligent Systems – How to Teach it?

To compete successfully in the global information technology market, the localization and/or internationalization of software and web contents for disparate users is essential. More or less solutions are available by software producers as an underlying part of an application’s infrastructure and architecture. Things like date, time, currency symbols, and delimiters are handled seamlessly. More open are topics like quality assurance, standards, data modeling and intelligent systems. Nevertheless to ensure the progress and up to date solutions, integration of internationalization contents in development of intelligent systems are expected and have to be supported. Education of internationalization and localization-aware computer science professionals is so playing the key role. Experts and also students have to cope with local cultural conventions that influence applications solutions. Especially in the area of intelligent medical system is the problem of internationalization and understanding of different cultures very important. Not only, because in different social and cultural environments different parameters influence development and work of intelligent systems but, also because medical intelligent systems support critical decisions.

Protecting medical data for decision-making analyses

In this paper, we present a procedure for data protection, which can be applied before any model building based analyses are performed. In medical environments, abundant data exist, but because of the lack of knowledge, they are rarely analyzed, although they hide valuable and often life-saving knowledge. To be able to analyze the data, the analyst needs to have a full access to the relevant sources, but this may be in the direct contradiction with the demand that data remain secure, and more importantly in medical area, private. This is especially the case if the data analyst is outsourced and not directly affiliated with the data owner. We address this issue and propose a solution where the model-building process is still possible while data are better protected. We consider the case where the distributions of original data values are preserved while the values themselves change, so that the resulting model is equivalent to the one built with original data.

Agent oriented approach to handling medical data

Medical treatment of a patient could be represented as a circle of the following actions: examination, diagnostics, and therapy. The aims of the actions are to find out the patient’s state of health and consequently to conclude about possible diseases and finally to choose a suitable therapy. In long term, the circle of actions repeat as long as the patient is not healthy. Efficiency of this treatment depends on the knowledge and the experiences of the physicians involved. Information technology offers many possibilities to help the physicians increase the efficiency and the quality of this work. In the article, we present an agent-oriented computer-based health care service, which uses information from different data sources that are physically distributed across several sites. Such a decentralized approach mirrors the organizational structure of a health service and it is very similar to an agent-oriented view of the world.

Qualitative Model for Quality Control in Production

To assure quality products that meet all specifications and standards, we need to know a manufacturing process very well and we also need efficient methods to control it. That is especially important in mass production, where it is not enough only to meet the corresponding specifications but also to achieve the highest uniformity or equality of the products. Therefore, a very important task in a production is a continuous control of all its processes to achieve required quality of products. Once we have an indication of a shift outside a stable pattern of variation, we must discover the reason for the shift and correct it. In our contribution we present a qualitative model of production control based on a mathematical model of the inspection for use in expert systems for automatic analysis of production processes.

Database Reusability in Intelligent Medical Systems

Reuse or reusability is not a specific, algorithmic, heuristic or only a simple set of guidelines. Database reuse means the use of an existing component—a database entity—in a new context, either elsewhere in the same system or in another system. According to different definitions, an intelligent system is a “power tool for thinking”; but on the other side it is only a kind of information system with built-in knowledge to support decisions made by human experts. Similar conclusions could be made for intelligent medical systems and introduce the database reusability in this environment with a purpose to increase the quality of an intelligent medical system. In the paper the problem of the database reusability will be presented more in detail, especially its integration in an intelligent medical system. Finally, the results of such integration and the benefits for the medicine will be discussed.

Cultural Aspects in Technology-Enhanced Education

Information and communication technologies helped make our world global a long time ago. Developed global models thus influenced education including teaching and mobility. Technology-enhanced education became one of the possible popular approaches used at different levels of education. For educational institutions, technology-enhanced education introduced new types of learners and the potential to share resources with other institutions. Learners can be involved in blended learning, and thereby choose when and where they learn. Opportunities for personalized learning, where learners find their own way through learning material appears and, last but not least, a wide range of devices and systems among which learners can choose their preferred platform is available. By using the mentioned approaches, being virtually involved, we can easily cross geographical borders. Participants can span across continents, countries, regions, cultures and languages easily, without having to step out of the classroom or office, or even be aware that they are crossing geographical borders. The learners became virtually mobile, but at the same time, participants in the same system can be of a different cultural and linguistic background. This requires a new understanding and for the preparation of educational materials as well as educational modules. The needs and expectations of participants from different environments and countries, as well as from different languages and culture groups can be different even with regard to some well-known and developed topics. These differences can influence the complete educational process and participants have to be aware of cultural aspects in technology-enhanced education. Cultural aspects and awareness help them to avoid communicational misunderstandings and other disappointments during the educational process. In this paper, we will introduce some basic cultural aspects and connect them to technology-enhanced education. Through case studies, our experiences with cultural aspects in different situations, expert topics and environments including technology-enhanced education tools will also be presented.

Need for the Intercultural Awareness in Erasmus Mobility – Administrative Point of View

In recent years, mobility has become one of the most important goals inside the European Union (EU). Different projects and programs support the mobility of students, teachers and other employed persons. From program to program and project to project, goals are different. Through employment, companies have the need for different experts or the need to work with international teams. They can also offer jobs for placements and for young experts for their first employment (like the Leonardo da Vinci program), while for students and teachers, the main goals of mobility are learning and teaching in different environments (like the Erasmus program) as well as learning languages and benefiting from cross-cultural experiences. Both students and teachers come from different cultural environments and the host organisation has to take care of intercultural awareness in all levels of activities, from administration up to teaching and passing exams.

Medical Personal Data in Secure Information Systems

Between secure information systems (IS) are also medical IS which support work of different medical institutions as well as pharmacies and insurance companies. All of them have to work with medical personal data which should take into account the privacy. The privacy is the individual’s right to determine if, when and how data about them will be collected, stored, used and shared with others. According to this definition medical personal data are treated as sensitive data, which can only be gathered and processed under particular conditions. In this contribution we will concentrate on personal medical data saved in medical records. Namely there are numerous message flows between medical staff and medical records that are often completely unprotected and can be accessed easier than might be expected. We will study the guidelines for medical staff regarding the protection of personal data, the corresponding Slovenian legislation, and the recommendations of a particular institution.