11,263 research outputs found
Aggregated fuzzy answer set programming
Fuzzy Answer Set programming (FASP) is an extension of answer set programming (ASP), based on fuzzy logic. It allows to encode continuous optimization problems in the same concise manner as ASP allows to model combinatorial problems. As a result of its inherent continuity, rules in FASP may be satisfied or violated to certain degrees. Rather than insisting that all rules are fully satisfied, we may only require that they are satisfied partially, to the best extent possible. However, most approaches that feature partial rule satisfaction limit themselves to attaching predefined weights to rules, which is not sufficiently flexible for most real-life applications. In this paper, we develop an alternative, based on aggregator functions that specify which (combination of) rules are most important to satisfy. We extend upon previous work by allowing aggregator expressions to define partially ordered preferences, and by the use of a fixpoint semantics
Knowledge aggregation in people recommender systems : matching skills to tasks
People recommender systems (PRS) are a special type of RS. They are often adopted to identify people capable of performing a task. Recommending people poses several challenges not exhibited in traditional RS. Elements such as availability, overload, unresponsiveness, and bad recommendations can have adverse effects. This thesis explores how people’s preferences can be elicited for single-event matchmaking under uncertainty and how to align them with appropriate tasks. Different methodologies are introduced to profile people, each based on the nature of the information from which it was obtained. These methodologies are developed into three use cases to illustrate the challenges of PRS and the steps taken to address them. Each one emphasizes the priorities of the matching process and the constraints under which these recommendations are made. First, multi-criteria profiles are derived completely from heterogeneous sources in an implicit manner characterizing users from multiple perspectives and multi-dimensional points-of-view without influence from the user. The profiles are introduced to the conference reviewer assignment problem. Attention is given to distribute people across items in order reduce potential overloading of a person, and neglect or rejection of a task. Second, people’s areas of interest are inferred from their resumes and expressed in terms of their uncertainty avoiding explicit elicitation from an individual or outsider. The profile is applied to a personnel selection problem where emphasis is placed on the preferences of the candidate leading to an asymmetric matching process. Third, profiles are created by integrating implicit information and explicitly stated attributes. A model is developed to classify citizens according to their lifestyles which maintains the original information in the data set throughout the cluster formation. These use cases serve as pilot tests for generalization to real-life implementations. Areas for future application are discussed from new perspectives.Els sistemes de recomanació de persones (PRS) són un tipus especial de sistemes recomanadors (RS). Sovint s’utilitzen per identificar persones per a realitzar una tasca. La recomanació de persones comporta diversos reptes no exposats en la RS tradicional. Elements com la disponibilitat, la sobrecà rrega, la falta de resposta i les recomanacions incorrectes poden tenir efectes adversos. En aquesta tesi s'explora com es poden obtenir les preferències dels usuaris per a la definició d'assignacions sota incertesa i com aquestes assignacions es poden alinear amb tasques definides. S'introdueixen diferents metodologies per definir el perfil d’usuaris, cadascun en funció de la naturalesa de la informació necessà ria. Aquestes metodologies es desenvolupen i s’apliquen en tres casos d’ús per il·lustrar els reptes dels PRS i els passos realitzats per abordar-los. Cadascun destaca les prioritats del procés, l’encaix de les recomanacions i les seves limitacions. En el primer cas, els perfils es deriven de variables heterogènies de manera implÃcita per tal de caracteritzar als usuaris des de múltiples perspectives i punts de vista multidimensionals sense la influència explÃcita de l’usuari. Això s’aplica al problema d'assignació d’avaluadors per a articles de conferències. Es presta especial atenció al fet de distribuir els avaluadors entre articles per tal de reduir la sobrecà rrega potencial d'una persona i el neguit o el rebuig a la tasca. En el segon cas, les à rees d’interès per a caracteritzar les persones es dedueixen dels seus currÃculums i s’expressen en termes d’incertesa evitant que els interessos es demanin explÃcitament a les persones. El sistema s'aplica a un problema de selecció de personal on es posa èmfasi en les preferències del candidat que condueixen a un procés d’encaix asimètric. En el tercer cas, els perfils dels usuaris es defineixen integrant informació implÃcita i atributs indicats explÃcitament. Es desenvolupa un model per classificar els ciutadans segons els seus estils de vida que manté la informació original del conjunt de dades del clúster al que ell pertany. Finalment, s’analitzen aquests casos com a proves pilot per generalitzar implementacions en futurs casos reals. Es discuteixen les à rees d'aplicació futures i noves perspectives.Postprint (published version
Brenda Jackson Final Master\u27s Portfolio
Best Practices for English Teachers: Effective Writing Assessment Techniques
How Technical Communicators Enhance Training Knowledge Transfer: A Diverse Approac
Relationship between pedagogic and course factors and student outcomes in community college online courses
The purpose of this study was to identify instructor behaviors that lead to positive student
outcomes in online courses. The study investigated the relationship between 12 predictive
variables and three measures of student success (assignment grade, course grade, and
student retention) in online courses. Archived online courses at a rural community
college were analyzed for the presence of the predictive variables, with each variable
counted within the course and within each course activity completed by each student.
Outcome variables were determined through the college's data warehouse and the online
courses' gradebooks. Hierarchical linear modeling was used to analyze the predictive
value of each predictive variable as it relates to the three outcome measures; the fourth
was described in terms of correlations. Student-student interaction and immediacy were
significant predictors of all three outcome variables, while other variables were
inconsistent across outcomes or were not statistically significant predictors. Course grade
was positively correlated with student-student interaction, student formative behaviors,
and immediacy. It was negatively correlated with building student capacity. Assignment grade was positively correlated with student-student interaction, student-teacher
interaction, student formative behavior, immediacy, and varied teaching activities. It was
negatively correlated with number of formative activities in the course and
preprogrammed instructor communication. Student retention was positively correlated
with student-student interaction and immediacy. Possible explanations for these findings
are discussed in relationship to the literature. Recommendations for future research and
online instructional practice are suggested
Pushing the envelope of Optimization Modulo Theories with Linear-Arithmetic Cost Functions
In the last decade we have witnessed an impressive progress in the
expressiveness and efficiency of Satisfiability Modulo Theories (SMT) solving
techniques. This has brought previously-intractable problems at the reach of
state-of-the-art SMT solvers, in particular in the domain of SW and HW
verification. Many SMT-encodable problems of interest, however, require also
the capability of finding models that are optimal wrt. some cost functions. In
previous work, namely "Optimization Modulo Theory with Linear Rational Cost
Functions -- OMT(LAR U T )", we have leveraged SMT solving to handle the
minimization of cost functions on linear arithmetic over the rationals, by
means of a combination of SMT and LP minimization techniques. In this paper we
push the envelope of our OMT approach along three directions: first, we extend
it to work also with linear arithmetic on the mixed integer/rational domain, by
means of a combination of SMT, LP and ILP minimization techniques; second, we
develop a multi-objective version of OMT, so that to handle many cost functions
simultaneously; third, we develop an incremental version of OMT, so that to
exploit the incrementality of some OMT-encodable problems. An empirical
evaluation performed on OMT-encoded verification problems demonstrates the
usefulness and efficiency of these extensions.Comment: A slightly-shorter version of this paper is published at TACAS 2015
conferenc
Technical Paper Recommendation: A Study in Combining Multiple Information Sources
The growing need to manage and exploit the proliferation of online data
sources is opening up new opportunities for bringing people closer to the
resources they need. For instance, consider a recommendation service through
which researchers can receive daily pointers to journal papers in their fields
of interest. We survey some of the known approaches to the problem of technical
paper recommendation and ask how they can be extended to deal with multiple
information sources. More specifically, we focus on a variant of this problem -
recommending conference paper submissions to reviewing committee members -
which offers us a testbed to try different approaches. Using WHIRL - an
information integration system - we are able to implement different
recommendation algorithms derived from information retrieval principles. We
also use a novel autonomous procedure for gathering reviewer interest
information from the Web. We evaluate our approach and compare it to other
methods using preference data provided by members of the AAAI-98 conference
reviewing committee along with data about the actual submissions
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