Staff Profiles

I am the Subject Coordinator for Foundation in Computing year and also the liaison manager for the computing foundation degrees delivered at Abingdon and Witney College and Wiltshire College

I mainly teach programming modules in Java and Python for fiundation, undergraduate and postgraduate students and will start teaching data visualisation and dat science.

• H2020 EU Pepper

Journal articles

• León-Vargas F, Martin C, Garcia-Jaramillo M, Aldea A, Leal Y, Herrero P, Reyes A, Henao D, Gomez AM, 'Is a Cloud-based Platform Useful for Diabetes Management in Colombia? The Tidepool Experience  '
  Computer Methods and Programs in Biomedicine 208 (2021)
  ISSN: 0169-2607 eISSN: 0169-2607
  Abstract

  Background

  There are several medical devices used in Colombia for diabetes management, most of which have an associated telemedicine platform to access the data. In this work, we present the results of a pilot study evaluating the use of the Tidepool telemedicine platform for providing remote diabetes health services in Colombia across multiple devices.

  Method

  Individuals with Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes using multiple diabetes devices were recruited to evaluate the user experience with Tidepool over three months. Two endocrinologists used the Tidepool software to maintain a weekly communication with participants reviewing the devices data remotely. Demographic, clinical, psychological and usability data were collected at several stages of the study.

  Results

  Six participants, from ten at the baseline (five MDI and five CSII), completed this pilot study. Three different diabetes devices were employed by the participants: a glucose meter (Abbot), an intermittently-scanned glucose monitor (Abbot), and an insulin pump (Medtronic). A score of 81.3 in the system usability scale revealed that overall, most participants found the system easy to use, especially the web interface. The system also compared highly favourably against the proprietary platforms. The ability to upload and share data and communicate remotely with the clinicians was raised consistently by participants. Clinicians cited the lockdown imposed by the Covid-19 pandemic as a valuable test for this platform. Inability to upload data from mobile devices was identified as one of the main limitations.

  Conclusion

  Tidepool has the potential to be used as a tool to facilitate remote diabetes care in Colombia. Users, both participants and clinicians, agreed to recommend the use of platforms like Tidepool to achieve better disease management and communication with the health care team. Some improvements were identified to enhance the user experience.

  Website 
• Martin C, Aldea A, Duce D, Harrison R, Alshaigy B, 'The Role of Usability Engineering in the Development of an Intelligent Decision Support System'
  Lecture Notes in Computer Science 11326 (2019) pp.142-161
  ISSN: 0302-9743 eISSN: 0302-9743 ISBN: 9783030127381
  Abstract

  This paper presents an overview of the usability engineering process for the development of a personalised clinical decision support system for the management of type 1 diabetes. The tool uses artificial intelligence (AI) techniques to provide insulin bolus dose advice and carbohydrate recommendations that adapt to the individual. We describe the role of human factors and user-centred design in the creation of medical systems that must adhere to international standards. We focus specifically on the formative evaluation stage of this process. The preliminary analysis of data shows promising results.
  

  Website 
• Martinez-Garcia M, Valls A, Moreno A, Aldea A, 'A semantic multi-criteria approach to evaluate different types of energy generation technologies'
  Environmental Modelling and Software 110 (2018) pp.129-138
  ISSN: 1364-8152 eISSN: 1873-6726
  Abstract Multi-Criteria Decision Aid methods are used to find the best option from a set of alternatives when multiple and conflicting criteria have to be optimized simultaneously. The evaluation of the suitability or risk of each alternative is usually performed by assigning a numerical value. However, sometimes the data required to measure a criterion may be found in the form of semantic values such as tags. This paper proposes a methodology to calculate the strength of an outranking relation for a pair of alternatives using semantic criteria following the principles of ELECTRE-III (i.e. by means of concordance and discordance indices). The preferences about semantic data are represented in an ontology by means of objective and subjective functions. The paper explains how this new methodology was applied to analyse different electricity generation technologies using environmental and economic criteria. Two scenarios are tested to show how semantic criteria may influence the final decision.Website 
• Brown D, Aldea A, Harrison R, Martin C, Bayley I, 'Temporal case-based reasoning for type 1 diabetes mellitus bolus insulin decision support'
  Artificial Intelligence in Medicine 85 (April 2018) (2018) pp.28-42
  ISSN: 0933-3657 eISSN: 1873-2860
  Abstract Individuals with type 1 diabetes have to monitor their blood glucose levels, determine the quantity of insulin required to achieve optimal glycaemic control and administer it themselves subcutaneously, multiple times per day. To help with this process bolus calculators have been developed that suggest the appropriate dose. However these calculators do not automatically adapt to the specific circumstances of an individual and require fine-tuning of parameters, a process that often requires the input of an expert.
  To overcome the limitations of the traditional methods this paper proposes the use of an artificial intelligence technique, case-based reasoning, to personalise the bolus calculation. A novel aspect of our approach is the use of temporal sequences to take into account preceding events when recommending the bolus insulin doses rather than looking at events in isolation.
  The in silico results described in this paper show that given the initial conditions of the patient, the temporal retrieval algorithm identifies the most suitable case for reuse. Additionally through insulin-on-board adaptation and postprandial revision, the approach is able to learn and improve bolus predictions, reducing the blood glucose risk index by up to 27% after three revisions of a bolus solution.Website 
• Zhu H, Liu D, Bayley I, Aldea A, Yang Y, Chen Y, 'Quality Model and Metrics of Ontology for Semantic Descriptions of Web Services'
  Tsinghua Science and Technology 22 (3) (2017) pp.254-272
  ISSN: 1007-0214
  Abstract An ontology is a conceptualisation of domain knowledge. It is employed in semantic web services technologies to describe the meanings of services so that they can be dynamically searched for and composed according to their meanings. It is essential for dynamic service discovery, composition and invocation. Whether an ontology is well constructed has a tremendous impact on the accuracy of the semantic description of a web service, the complexity of the semantic definitions, the efficiency of processing messages passed between services, and the precision and recall rates of service retrieval from service registrations. However, measuring the quality of an ontology remains an open problem. Work on the evaluation of ontologies do exist, but they are not in the context of semantic web services. This paper addresses this problem by proposing a quality model of ontology and defining a set of metrics that enables the quality of an ontology to be measured objectively and quantitatively in the context of semantic descriptions of web services. These metrics cover the contents, presentation and usage aspects of ontologies. The paper also presents a tool that implements these metrics and reports a case study on five real-life examples of web services.Website 
• Sapkota K, Aldea A, Younas M, Duce DA, Banares-Alcantara R, 'Automating the Semantic Mapping between Regulatory Guidelines and Organizational Processes'
  Service Oriented Computing and Applications 10 (4) (2016) pp.365-389
  ISSN: 1863-2386
  Abstract The mapping of regulatory guidelines with organizational processes is an important aspect of a regulatory compliance management system. Automating this mapping process can greatly improve the overall compliance process. Currently, there is research on mapping between different entities such as ontology mapping, sentence similarity, semantic similarity and regulation-requirement mapping. However, there has not been adequate research on the automation of the mapping process between regulatory guidelines and organizational processes. In this paper, we explain how Natural Language Processing and Semantic Web technologies can be applied in this area. In particular, we explain how we can take advantage of the structures of regulation-ontology and the process-ontology in order to compute the similarity between a regulatory guideline and a process. Our methodology is validated using a case study in the Pharmaceutical industry, which has shown promising results.Website 
• Aldea A, Crook N, Duce D, Marshall P, Martin C, Sutton D, 'Reflections on the evolution of the teaching of programming to undergraduates at Oxford Brookes University'
  Brookes eJournal of Learning and Teaching 7 (1) (2015)
  ISSN: 1744-7747
  Abstract

  Undergraduate computing courses inevitably include a high degree of regeneration in order to keep abreast of this rapidly changing field. Introductory programming modules in particular need to adapt to changing trends and languages. Until recently, the focus of debate within the Oxford Brookes University curriculum has therefore been on the course content, but since 2012 there has been a major change in the method of delivery through the introduction of a new apprenticeship model. This paper seeks to reflect on this, and other recent changes which have led to improved student engagement and results. The data is limited however, and so the results presented here are not conclusive.

  Website 
• Aldea A, Banares-Alcantara R, Skrzypczak S, 'Managing Information to Support the Decission Making Process'
  Journal of Information and Knowledge Management 11 (3) (2012) pp.1250016-1-1250016-13
  ISSN: 0219-6492
  Abstract

  Decision-making is a crucial activity during the planning, design and operation of artefacts. To make a decision several alternatives must be evaluated and compared, which are tasks that require information, knowledge and expertise. A system that organises and manages the knowledge associated with every alternative and links ideas, arguments and issues can greatly improve and facilitate the decision making process. This paper presents how an Issue Based Information System (IBIS) implemented in Compendium (http://compendium.open.ac.uk) has been extended with new functionalities such as access to a toolkit of Multi-Criteria Decision Methods (MCDM), the ability to propagate values throughout the decision records and to perform sensitivity analysis of the recommended decisions with respect to a parameter. These additional functionalities enable the applicability of the system in the support of decisions that require not only argumentation, but also numerical evaluation of the properties of the alternatives such as those proposed during the design, planning and operation of engineering artefacts.

  Website 
• Sapkota K, Aldea A, Bañares-Alcántara R, 'Towards semantic knowledge mapping: an extension of compendium with semantic knowledge representation'
  International Journal of Artificial Intelligence and Applications 3 (5) (2012) pp.1-12
  ISSN: 0976-2191
  Abstract Compendium is a knowledge mapping application equipped with graphical representations of ideas andarguments. Extension of the processes in Compendium with Semantic Web technologies can be beneficialfor the intelligent searching of concepts or ideas, and supporting decision making process. This paperpresents the extended Compendium which exploits the Semantic Web for knowledge representation anduser interaction. The result evaluated by the experts and users showed that the extension eases andstreamlines the decision making process.Website 
• Aldea A, 'A System to Support Policy Development for the Sustainable Production of Biofuels'
  Asian Journal of Chemistry 21 (2009) pp.3279-3294
  ISSN: 0970-7077 eISSN: 0975-427X
  
• Aldea A, 'A compliance management system for the pharmaceutical industry'
  Computer Aided Chemical Engineering 25 (-) (2008) pp.949-954
  ISSN: 1570-7946
  Abstract The management of compliance with rules, policies, guidelines, practices, and standards is largely done through a manual and labour-intensive process. This process can be facilitated through the use of a computer-based Compliance Management System (CMS). A CMS identifies compliance tasks, tracks the performance of these tasks with respect to a set of requirements and documents their compliance status. The output from a CMS can be used to satisfy a variety of reporting requirements and initiate alerting mechanisms. A CMS can be particularly useful in managing regulation change and overlap. This paper presents the first step in the development of a decision and compliance management tool, in particular, a prototype CMS for the pharmaceutical industry is described. The CMS has been tested with a simulated case study.Website 
• Aldea A, 'A Hierarchical Approach for the Redesign of Chemical Processes'
  Knowledge and Information Systems 12 (2007) pp.169-201
  ISSN: 0219-1377 eISSN: 0219-3116
  Website 

Conference papers

• Bravo M, Aldea A, Hoyos-Reyes LF, 'Automated Ontology Population and Enrichment of Scientific Publications'
  Journal of Physics: Conference Series 1828 (012139) (2021)
  ISSN: 1742-6588
  Abstract

  Scientific publications are the most important resources available to the research communities. Researchers want their work to be widely recognized and available and also need powerful search engines to identify other publications and researchers working in the same area. Therefore, a good representation and organization of scientific products is crucial for an accurate retrieval of information. This paper describes an approach for automated population and semantic enrichment of an ontology model that represents scientific publications. Specifically, the type of enrichment used in this approach consists of implementing semantic similarity measurements between publications. Several experiments were performed to identify the best similarity measurement, using a statistical approach and the precision of the measurements.​​​​​​​
  

  Website 
• Duce, D. and Martin, C. and Russell, a. and Brown D. and Aldea, A. and Alshaigy, B. and Harrison, R. and Waite, M. and Leal, Y. and Wos, M.and Fernandez-Balsells, M. and Real, J. and Nita, L. and López, B. and Massana, J. and Avari, P. and Herrero, P. and Jugnee, N. and Oliver, N. and Reddy, M., 'Visualizing Usage Data from a Diabetes Management System'
  (2020)
  ISBN: 9783038681229
  Abstract

  This article explores the role for visualization in interpreting data collected by a customised analytics framework within a healthcare technology project. It draws on the work of the EU-funded PEPPER project, which has created a personalised decision-support system for people with type 1 diabetes. Our approach was an exercise in exploratory visualization, as described by Bergeron's three category taxonomy. The charts revealed different patterns of interaction, including variability in insulin dosing schedule, and potential causes of rejected advice. These insights into user behaviour are of especial value to this field, as they may help clinicians and developers understand some of the obstacles that hinder the uptake of diabetes technology.
  

  Website 
• Waite , M. Aldea A. Avari, P , Leal Y, Martin, C. Duce , D, Fernández-Balsells, M. Fernández- Real J.M. , Herrero , P.,Jugnee , N, Lui, C., 1 , López, B., Massana, J. Russell, A , Reddy, M., Wos , M, Oliver, N., 'TRUST AND CONTEXTUAL ENGAGEMENT WITH THE PEPPER SYSTEM: THE QUALITATIVE FINDINGS OF A CLINICAL FEASIBILITY STUDY'
  (2020)
  Abstract

  Background and aims. PEPPER (Patient Empowerment through Predictive PERsonalised decision support) is an EU-funded research project which aims to improve self-management of type 1 diabetes (T1D).  The system comprises an AI insulin bolus recommender, coupled with a safety system. The aim of the qualitative arm of this clinical feasibility study was to examine the context of participants’ interaction with the PEPPER system and identify incidents where bolus recommendations were trusted and accepted. 

  
  Methods. This was a multicentre (UK and Spain) non-randomised open-labelled 6-week pilot study. Thirteen adults with T1D participated in weekly telephone interviews to explore the context of their interactions and responses to PEPPER. Data was thematically analysed through conceptual frameworks for engagement with healthcare digital behaviour change interventions.

  Results. Participants reported their key interactions as responding to PEPPER bolus recommendations, inputting carbohydrate values, interpreting continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) values through visualization of personal data and dealing with safety alarms. Two themes were associated with trust and engagement with the system; ‘feeling monitored’ and ‘feeling in control’. The incidents where participants trusted PEPPER also enhanced personal expertise of T1D through insights provided by the safety system such as low glucose basal insulin for pump users. Benefits were balanced against technical challenges of the system, which were used to improve the PEPPER application and enhance user experience. 

  Conclusion. Some participants suggested that even access to PEPPER for a temporary period could positively influence self-management strategies. Contextual interviewing is a valuable tool in mobile application development for diabetes decision support systems. 

• Martin C, Aldea A, Duce D, Harrison R, Waite M, 'The Role of Usability Engineering in the Development of an Intelligent Decision Support System'
  (2018)
  Abstract

  We describe the role of human factors in the development of a personalised clinical decision support system for type 1 diabetes self-management. The tool uses artificial intelligence (AI) techniques to provide insulin bolus dose advice and carbohydrate recommendations that adapt to the individual.
  

  Website 
• Munoz-Balbontin M, olde Scheper TV, Aldea A, 'Developing a dynamic bio-inspired intelligent system to support diabetic patients'
  (2017) pp.41-47
  Abstract This paper proposes a new biologically-inspired phenomenological model of insulin release that can be used to continuously monitor a person with diabetes and therefore recommend insulin dose and predict events. Given all the parameters and conditions that have to be met in order to achieve stability, the proposed insulin-release system will be considered as highly non-linear and dynamical. The resulting model will study the mechanisms that keep the system from reaching a chaotic state (diabetes), based on the property of self-organised criticality. This property was selected since it has been previously identified and studied in other dynamical biological
  systems. The proposed model will then be used as part of a model-based reasoning system that aims to support patients with diabetes.Website 
• D. Brown, C. Martin, D. Duce, A. Aldea, R. Harrison, 'Towards a Formal Model of Type 1 Diabetes for Artificial Intelligence'
  (2017)
  Abstract Artificial Intelligence (AI) is potentially useful for cost effective diabetes self-management. One research priority for the development of robust and beneficial AI concerns the use of formal verification techniques to model such self-modifying systems. In the context of diabetes, formal methods may also have a role in fostering trust in the technology as well as facilitating dialogue between a multidisciplinary team to determine system requirements in a precise way. In this paper we show how the formal modelling language Event-B can be used to capture safety-critical constraints associated with AI systems for diabetes management.Website 
• Ogunyadeka A, Younas M, Zhu H, Aldea A, 'A Multi-key Transactions Model for NoSQL Cloud Database Systems'
  (2016) pp.24-27
  ISBN: 978-1-5090-2251-9
  Abstract

  NoSQL cloud database systems are new types of databases that are built across thousands of cloud nodes and are capable of storing and processing Big Data. NoSQL systems have

  increasingly been used in large scale applications that need high availability and efficiency but with weaker consistency. Consequently, such systems lack support for standard transactions which provide stronger consistency. This paper proposes a new multi-key transactional model which provides NoSQL systems with standard transaction support and stronger level of data consistency. The strategy is to supplement current NoSQL architecture with an extra layer that manages transactions. The proposed model is configurable where consistency, availability and efficiency can be adjusted based on application requirements. The proposed model is validated through a prototype system using MongoDB. Preliminary experiments show that it ensures stronger consistency and maintains good performance.
  Website 
• Liu D, Yang Y, Chen Y, Zhu H, Bayley I, Aldea A, 'Evaluating the Ontological Semantic Description of Web Services Generated from Algebraic Specifications'
  (16022405) (2016) pp.211-220
  ISBN: 978-1-5090-2253-3
  Abstract
  The semantics of web services can be described using ontology or formally specified in mathematical notations. The former is comprehensible and searchable, while the latter is testable and verifiable. To take advantage of both, we proposed, in our previous work, a transformation that takes an algebraic specification of a web service to generate a domain ontology and a semantic description of the service on that ontology.
   
  This paper investigates the quality of these two outputs by proposing a general framework of ontology evaluation that assesses them on 4 aspects of quality, which are decomposed into 8 factors and then measured by a set of 37 metrics. It reports a case study on 3 real-life examples of web services. The results show that the ontologies and semantic descriptions generated from formal specifications are of satisfactory quality. 
   
  Website 
• Alshaigy B, Kamal S, Aldea A, Martin C, Mitchell F, 'PILeT: an Interactive Learning Tool To Teach Python'
  (2015) pp.76-79
  ISBN: 978-1-4503-3753-3
  Abstract This paper describes a planned investigation into how learning styles and pedagogical methodologies can be embedded into an e-learning tool to assist students' learning programming. The objective of the research is to test the hypothesis that combining multiple teaching methods to accommodate dierent learners' preferences will signi�cantly improve
  comprehension of concepts, which in turn increases students' con�dence and as a consequence performance in programming. An interactive learning tool to teach Python programming language to students, called PILeT, has been developed to test the hypothesis. The tool aims to be adaptable to the students' learning style and as such it will teach programming using several techniques (e.g. visual, textual, puzzles) to appeal to each preference. PILeT is suitable for
  secondary school students or teachers wishing to undertake CPD (Continuing Professional Development). PILeT will be tested on �rst year undergraduate students at Oxford Brookes University.
  Website 
• Aldea A, 'A Compliance Management System for the Pharmaceutical Industry'
  25 (2011) pp.949-954
  
• Sutton D, Aldea A, Martin C, 'An ontology of diabetes self management'
  (2011) pp.83-86
  ISBN: 9781450309547
  Abstract

  This work is part of a planned larger project to develop an intelligent mobile personalised guidance service for the management of diabetes by harnessing the power of the new generation of smart phones. Existing mobile applications enable diabetic patients to record blood glucose readings, carbohydrates consumed, insulin dosage, physical activity undertaken, and other activities and observations. Our aim is to develop a lightweight ontology that captures the kinds of information recorded by such applications, and which would facilitate interoperation. In order to establish a list of terms that must be captured by the ontology, we have undertaken a systematic review of applications (limited, for the moment to the iOS platform). We use this list to establish suitable classes and properties for the ontology, and then investigate how it can be mapped on to existing standards such as HL7 RIM and OpenEHR.

  Website 
• Sapkota K, Aldea A, Duce D, Younas M, Banares-Alcantara R, 'Semantic-ART: a framework for semantic annotation of regulatory text'
  (2011)
  ISBN: 1861662459
  Website 
• Martin C, Flood D, Sutton D, Aldea A, Harrison R, Waite M, 'A Systematic Evaluation of Mobile Applications for Diabetes Management'
  6949 (2011) pp.466-469
  ISBN: 978-3-642-23767-6 eISBN: 978-3-642-23768-3
  Abstract This short paper contains a summary of work that is currently in progress towards the development of an intelligent, personalised tool for diabetes management. A preliminary part of the development process has consisted of a systematic evaluation of existing applications for mobile phones.Website 
• Contreras-Valenzuela M, Aldea A, Rodriguez-Martinez A, 'Automatic identification of operational problems in a chemical process'
  (2010) pp.1375-1380
  ISSN: 1375-1380
  Abstract This paper proposes a methodology to monitor and identify operation problems by using an extended version of Compendium (Compendium Inst., 2009), a knowledge map tool. Our approach uses a modified version of Compendium that was developed to aid the decision making process. Efficiency and productivity rates are inputted to “options versus criteria matrices” incorporated into Compendium to identify problems and suggest recommendations to improve the process. The design of a Heat transformer was used as a case study.
• Singh M, Bañares-Alcántara R, Skrzypczak S, Aldea A, 'A system to support policy development for the sustainable production of biofuels'
  (2008) pp.--
  Website 
• Aldea A, 'Generation of Process Alternatives Using Abstract Models and Case-based Reasoning'
  31 (2007) pp.902-918
  Website