Design of a Virtual Reality-based Framework for Supporting the Work Reintegration of Wheelchair Users

Accidents at work often lead the involved people to severe impairments, which can seriously compromise their life and their work activities. Various studies have proven that, for disabled people, being employed contributes to a better quality of life, thus it is important to give them the opportunity to continue their profes-sional career. This paper presents a framework aimed at supporting the training and the work-reintegration of people that, after an accident, are forced to use a wheelchair. In the proposed work, the Virtual Reality is the leading technology for allowing the wheelchair users to be trained in simulated environments where, in safe conditions, they become aware of their capabilities, while facing different challenging situations. More-over, the behaviour of the users is tracked during the whole training session for monitoring, processing and assessing, through semantic models, their functional level and the jobs that are still suitable for them

Collaborative Ontology Engineering Methodologies for the Development of Decision Support Systems: Case Studies in the Healthcare Domain

New models and technological advances are driving the digital transformation of healthcare systems. Ontologies and Semantic Web have been recognized among the most valuable solutions to manage the massive, various, and complex healthcare data deriving from different sources, thus acting as backbones for ontology-based Decision Support Systems (DSSs). Several contributions in the literature propose Ontology engineering methodologies (OEMs) to assist the formalization and development of ontologies, by providing guidelines on tasks, activities, and stakeholders' participation. Nevertheless, existing OEMs differ widely according to their approach, and often lack of sufficient details to support ontology engineers. This paper performs a meta-review of the main criteria adopted for assessing OEMs, and major issues and shortcomings identified in existing methodologies. The key issues requiring specific attention (i.e., the delivery of a feasibility study, the introduction of project management processes, the support for reuse, and the involvement of stakeholders) are then explored into three use cases of semantic-based DSS in health-related fields. Results contribute to the literature on OEMs by providing insights on specific tools and approaches to be used when tackling these issues in the development of collaborative OEMs supporting DSS

An ontology-based framework for a Less Invasive Domestic Management System (LIDoMS)

Research in the fields of the Smart Home and Ambient Assisted Living has increased in the last decade. While some solutions are available to general public, there are still some concerns related to the design of smart solutions and their acceptance, especially when it comes to residents' monitoring and privacy. In this context, this paper introduces an ontology-based smart home framework, LIDoMS, aimed at focusing on inhabitants needs by providing a representation of their health conditions, while offering them customized services. End-users can interact with the system thanks to an adaptive and ubiquitous graphical interface. In this work, the ontological framework underlying LIDoMS is described; the system exploits the knowledge regarding the status of appliances and residents' location within the smart home to infer the activity they are involved in, and to provide customized adaptation of indoor comfort metrics, thus enabling a less invasive monitoring of the inhabitants. Two scenarios describe how different residents can interact with LIDoMS to personalize comfort metrics - pivotal for their health condition. Finally, a framework for the validation of LIDoMS is presented

Natural resources in health tourism: A systematic literature review

Natural resources are recognized among the key determinants for the improvement of wellness, and thus the development and sustainability of health tourism destinations. This study applied a systematic review to investigate the contributions mapping and analyzing under different perspectives the value of the natural resources of a destination and related activities for health tourism. The main research topics identified from a review of 52 papers include the analysis and exploitation of natural resources in health tourism, the nature-based factors considered in clustering of tourists and their motivations, the development of value offer and marketing, as well as the cultural issues. Research gaps and future directions are summarized in a research agenda laying the foundations for the development of a multidisciplinary research stream focused on nature-based health tourism. Results also represent a key reference for managers and policy makers to identify key issues, areas of intervention and practices for industry development in the health tourism destinations through an effective and sustainable exploitation of natural resources

An evaluation of agile Ontology Engineering Methodologies for the digital transformation of companies

Ontologies are increasingly recognised among the key enablers of the digital transformation of knowledge management processes, but still with a low level of adoption in manufacturing companies. Because ontologies and underlying technologies are complex, Ontology Engineering Methodologies (OEMs) provide a set of guidelines to move from an informal to a formal representation of the company's knowledge base. This study evaluates three agile OEMs, i.e. UPONLite, SAMOD and RapidOWL, in terms of their process and outcome features, i.e. the OEM steps and the expected quality of the ontological models produced. The assessment is performed from the viewpoint of developers of ontology-based technologies in real industrial use cases. Results show that the three agile OEMs reflect different features to effectively support the digital transformation of companies' knowledge management; thus, they cannot be interchangeable. UPONLite is more effective in contexts where there is a lack of skills in OE, with the need for a structured approach in involving domain experts and generating documentation. SAMOD requires a more extended development period, but with several cycles that allow to map different types of knowledge and enable a “try-and-learn” approach. Conversely, RapidOWL lacks a structured sequence of modelling activities and encourages developers to be creative, but at the same time requires higher expertise in OE. Thus, companies and personnel dedicated to OE should choose the methodology according to the main aims guiding their digitalisation process, the current development status, and the level of expertise

HEALPS 2: Tourism Based on Natural health Resources for the Development of Alpine Regions

The HEALPS 2 project is using digital solutions and stakeholder engagement to unlock the potential of health tourism in the alpine regions

A novel agile ontology engineering methodology for supporting organizations in collaborative ontology development

Ontologies can represent technological enablers for knowledge elicitation and management in different kinds of organizations, especially with the exponential growth of sources and types of data fostered by digital transformation. However, their adoption in business applications is still limited, with existing Ontology Engineering Methodologies (OEMs) lacking adequate support during knowledge elicitation, authoring and reuse phases. This paper introduces a novel agile ontology engineering methodology (AgiSCOnt) to support ontologists (especially novice ones) in ontology development workflow, fostering collaboration with domain experts in an iterative, flexible and customizable approach. AgiSCOnt combines macro-level instructions with micro-level guidance, leveraging existing techniques and a management framework to help novice ontologists throughout the whole ontology engineering process. The methodology is compared to existing OEMs and assessed with three other agile methodologies (UPONLite, SAMOD, and RapidOWL). The evaluation is conducted with a sample of novice ontologists in a learning environment on Industry 4.0 technologies. Both the development process with a methodology from a user perspective and the quality of the developed ontologies were considered in the evaluation. Preliminary results show that AgiSCOnt effectively supports authoring and reuse, with developed ontologies of good quality. It is perceived as clear and simple, while being flexible and adaptable enough, thus supporting knowledge management and sharing in industrial organizations through the documentation of the ontologies