ACE: An Expert System Supporting Analysis and Management Decision Making

ACE, a system for Automated Cable Expertise, is a Knowledge-Based Expert System designed to provide trouble-shooting reports and management analyses for telephone cable maintenance in a timely manner. Many design decisions faced during the construction of ACE were guided by recent successes in expert systems technology, most notably R1/XCON, the Digital Equipment Corporation Vax configuration program. The most significant departure from "standard" expert systems architectures is ACE's use of a conventional data base management system as its primary source of information. Its primary sources of knowledge are the expert users of the database system, and primers on maintenance analysis strategies. The coupling of "knowledge-base" and "data-base" demonstrates in a forceful way the manner in which an expert system can significantly enhance the throughput and quality of data processing environments supporting business management. However, further difficult problems must be solved before the expert system approach becomes a standard technique in the data processing industry

PENENTUAN JURUSAN PENDIDIKAN SEKOLAH DI SMK COKROAMINOTO CIANJUR DENGAN METODE CERTAINTY FACTOR BERBASIS WEB

The importance of human resources is necessary to realize the many agencies undertaken to improve the performance of an agency such as through the activity title "Decision Support System Determination Department in SMK Cokroaminoto with Certainty Factor Web-Based Method." Previously still using manual system especially in decision support and application system so the process of presenting the data of prospective students will be long enough and generate a pile of files or data prospective students. This designed system is the title of "Decision Support Decision Support System This application can be applied to the decision support system to facilitate in the selection of students and students' ability to student data and student files that come in and can reduce the pile of existing files and also special information to provide service to students or users, about decision support system to be taken. This application uses designing the system DFD Data Flow Diagram The author uses a workflow to describe the analysis of running systems and proposed systems. Includes Context Diagrams, Data Flow Diagrams (DFDs), Entity Relationship Diagrams (ERDs), and for testing these apps use the BlackBox test concept. The results of this study show that. Supporting decision of the determination of majors in SMK Cokroaminoto Cianjur is choosing only majors, not along with solving other problems. Therefore it is single. There are several supporting foundations for determining this department on the basis of facts, supporting decisions on the determination of this department based on hobbies and knowledge. There are several factors in the decision support in choosing the majors in choosing majors in Cokroaminoto Cianjur SMK is the factor of hoby and knowledge that includes factors from family and social environment, and there are personal factors

The study on the integration of Activity Based Costing (ABC) system and six-sigma principle

Manufacturing organizations are facing much more challenges as compared to the earlier years. The important and crucial decisions have to be taken by the management in continuous basis in order to ensure the survival and competitiveness of company throughout the journey to become a successful organization. In order to make these decisions fast and correct, they need more accurate information related to financial and non-financial aspects. The conventional cost management systems, which were developed decades ago are unable to provide all information required to make right decision, justify the cost reduction and process improvements (Chen, 1996). This is because they were based on labor-intensive production system while today’s production processes are more sophisticated and faces constant changes. An alternative costing system, Activity Based Costing (ABC) has emerged to the new solution to costing system. It provides financial and non-financial information not only for product costing but also for each activity of manufacturing process. It can list and measure the cost of each activity individually in production and in supporting activities to deliver of a product or service right to customers (Sohal & Chung, 1998). ABC focuses on the activities performed to produce the products throughout the manufacturing process (Gunasekaran et al., 1999). By assigning other costs, such as marketing and administrative to cost object, ABC able to provide more accurate product costs. It helps to improve the operational performance by allocating overhead costs correctly. It provides cost information based on the actual consumption of the resources by each particular activity. The goal of ABC is to reveal cost allocation information by tracing the production costs accurately to activities and product (Gunasekaran et al., 1999). The implementation of ABC has provided many benefits, such as more accurate product costing, providing of cost behavior information and tracing resources consumptions. Realizing many benefits gain from implementation of ABC, many companies have embarked in applying ABC system. However, there are many problems and barriers they encountered during the implementation, which made some has decided to abort this system and not be able to exploit its advantages. It is the objective of this study to help foster the growth of Malaysian companies by helping them to provide better understanding,knowledge and skills to take advantage of using ABC as a tool to improve their manufacturing process. The title of the project is The Study on Integration of Activity-based Costing and Six-sigma Principle. The specific objective of the study is to determine success factors for ABC implementation in manufacturing companies based on Six-sigma process improvement principle. The focus of the study is to identify and understand the critical success factors in implementation of ABC, to identify and specified the problems and barriers and to understand their relationship with the ABC success. In order to identify, understand and formulate the proposed solution, this study will use a survey approach to get required data for further analysis. The survey will be based on mailed questionnaires to selected manufacturing industries in Malaysia. In order to formulate a comprehensive and relevant set of questionnaires, a comprehensive review of literature will be studied, followed by validation and verification process,which involved expert opinions and a pilot study. The next phase is where data from the study will be analyzed to identify areas related to the level of acceptance of ABC,the critical success factors and also to determine the relationship between the organization’s factors and the success of implementation of ABC system. The tangible outcome of this project is to provide a set of proposed guidelines and support tools for manufacturing organizations in applying Activity-based Costing for process improvement efforts as suggested by Six-sigma improvement principle

Developing An Expert System Framework for Supporting Diagnosis and Treatment of Dyspepsia and Gastric Cancer Disease Using Local Language

Dyspepsia is a pain of the upper abdominal and it has the problem of impaired digestion like abdominal disease or other abdominal disease, which has the symptoms of heartburn, nausea, and belching, upper abdominal fullness [1]. It also related to the problem of indigestion for a group of symptoms that cause pain in the abdomen, which affects at least 25% of the world population every year [2].  From related disease of dyspepsia, Gastric cancer is the stomach cancer that develops from the lining of the stomach that affects the cell of digestive system and it is the third leading cause of death worldwide [3]. Both dyspepsia and gastric cancer is diseases that affect gastrointestinal part of human body. Therefore, this type of disease requires timely diagnosis and treatment; otherwise it can cause death and other chronic diseases. In developing countries like Ethiopia, treatment option for dyspepsia and gastric cancer is not readily available which support medical professional and also there is a scarcity of medical professional, to address such medical problems a medical expert system can play a significant role, consequently, the main objective of this research study is to develop an expert system framework for supporting diagnosis and treatment of dyspepsia and gastric cancer using local language (Amharic language). To develop this medical expert system, knowledge was acquired using both structured and unstructured interview from domain expert which are selected using purposive sampling techniques from Arba Minch General Hospital, and from document analysis. Domain knowledge is modeled using decision tree and rule-based knowledge representation was used. This medical expert system is developed by using backward chaining to infer the rule and provide an appropriate diagnosis. Finally, the performance of the system was evaluated by preparing 15 test cases by provided to domain experts and for user acceptance test, users evaluate the system through nine criteria prepared by the researcher and the system has scored 80% system performance and 85.2% user acceptance this result shows that the study has a promising result that achieves the objective of the study. The researchers recommended that to apply data mining techniques and to extract the hidden knowledge. Keywords: Expert System, Dyspepsia and Gastric Cancer, Diagnosis, and Treatment. DOI: 10.7176/CEIS/12-1-03 Publication date: January 31st 202

Improving health care services through enhanced Health Information System: Human capacity development Model

AbstractBackground: Quality of health care depends on how the health system is able to reduce errors through evidence-based decisions. Demand for data on patient care has increased over the years to improve the health care system, including planning and policy issues in several countries across the globe. However, there are challenges and opportunities in the process of recording, managing, analyzing, interpreting, and reporting data and/or information. Accordingly, several studies showed that an appropriate capacity development program is expected to improve data recording, data quality and use by professionals, planners, policymakers, and stakeholders.Objective: This project aims to assess existing capacity-building efforts and formulate a new and better capacity-building model for the lower-level health facility staff of Addis ababa City administration, 2018-2020.Methods: PRISM and SWOT analysis method were employed to assess existing HIS gaps and opportunities. The assessment was carried out in the health centers located in selected three sub-cities of Addis Ababa City Administration. We employed phase to phase approach to design an innovative human capacity development model, namely, desk review, data collection, data synthesis, design, and validation.Results: The project designed interventions that were implemented simultaneously and one supporting the other. The capacity-building model includes a renewed approach to training; structured mentorship approach; practically oriented supportive supervision; ‘experience sharing program’ for helping those in a poor environment gain experience through experience sharing; quality improvement initiatives; and implementation science studies to tackle problems that may not be solved with activities listed earlier.Conclusion and recommendation: The new capacity-building approach helped to improve individual knowledge, interpersonal relationship, strategic thinking, system management, and accountability, all of which lead to sustained and improved HIS. Improvement in HIS is often a collective effort of several forces, but the human element plays a decisive role. [Ethiop. J. Health Dev. 2021; 35(SI-1):42-49]Keywords: Human Capacity Development Model, Health Information Systems, Quality of health care, data quality, Information us

Supporting pupils’ mental health in schools. Teaching staff’s and school nurses’ perceptions and the suitability of a webbased support system for pupils

School is an essential part of pupils’ lives, and teaching staff and school nurses have an important role in supporting pupils’ mental health. The aim of this study was to enhance knowledge related to supporting pupils’ mental health in schools. The study has three phases, and a multi-methods approach was used. In Phase I, teaching staff’s perceptions of pupils’ mental health and capacities to support it were studied. First, focus group interviews with teaching staff (N=16) were conducted. The data were analysed with inductive content analysis. Second, during an eLearning course, participants (N=8) submitted reflective writings about the challenging situations they had experienced with pupils. These writings were analysed with a combination of deductive and inductive content analysis. In Phase II, school nurses’ (N=167) perceptions of pupils’ mental health and their capacities to support it were studied. A national survey with structured questionnaires and open-ended questions for school nurses was conducted. The quantitative data were analysed using descriptive statistics and the qualitative data with manifest content analysis. In Phase III, the web-based support system (Depis.Net), originally developed for adolescents with symptoms of depression, was evaluated as a universal school-based mental health intervention among 21 adolescents. The quantitative data were analysed with descriptive statistics, and the qualitative data were analysed with deductive content analysis. The results of this study show that, in terms of pupils’ mental health, teaching staff are mainly concerned with challenging situations with pupils and how pupils with mental health problems should be supported. School nurses have capacities to support the mental health of pupils, but they desire more training on interventions. The web-based support system was found to be suitable as a universal mental health intervention in a school environment. Pupils used the web-based support system actively and gave positive feedback on it. Moreover, it was helpful in identifying pupils with needs for mental health support. The capacity of teachers and school nurses to support pupils’ mental health should be enhanced through offered training and the implementation of mental health interventions in schools. These measures would support pupils’ mental health and the early recognition of mental health problems in schools. Web-based support systems may be useful interventions for mental health support in schools.Oppilaiden mielenterveyden tukeminen kouluissa - Opetushenkilöstön ja kouluterveydenhoitajien näkemyksiä sekä verkkopohjaisen mielenterveyden tukiohjelman soveltuvuus oppilaille Koulu on merkittävä osa lasten ja nuorten elämää ja opetushenkilöstöllä ja kouluterveydenhoitajilla on tärkeä rooli oppilaiden mielenterveyden tukemisessa. Tutkimuksen tavoitteena oli saada tietoa oppilaiden mielenterveyden tukemisesta kouluissa. Tutkimus oli monimenetelmätutkimus, joka toteutettiin kolmessa vaiheessa. Vaiheessa I tutkittiin opetushenkilöstön näkemyksiä ja valmiuksia oppilaiden mielenterveyden tukemiseen. Aluksi tutkimusaineisto kerättiin opetushenkilöstön (N=16) ryhmähaastatteluiden avulla ja analysoitiin induktiivisen sisällönanalyysin avulla. Myöhemmin opetushenkilöstö (N=8) kirjoitti osana verkkokurssia, reflektiivisiä kirjoitelmia kokemistaan haastavista tilanteista oppilaiden kanssa. Kirjoitelmat analysoitiin deduktiivis-induktiivisella sisällön analyysillä. Vaiheessa II kouluterveydenhoitajien (N=167) näkemyksiä ja valmiuksia oppilaiden mielenterveyden tukemiseen tutkittiin kansallisessa kyselytutkimuksessa, joka sisälsi strukturoituja ja avoimia kysymyksiä. Määrällinen aineisto analysoitiin kuvailevin tilastollisin menetelmin ja laadullinen aineisto analysoitiin sisällön analyysin avulla. Vaiheessa III alun perin masennusoireista kärsiville nuorille kehitettyä tukiohjelmaa (Depis.Net) testattiin kouluympäristössä 21 nuoren kanssa. Määrällinen aineisto analysoitiin kuvailevin tilastollisin menetelmin ja laadullinen deduktiivisen sisällön analyysin avulla. Tutkimuksen tulokset osoittavat, että opetushenkilöstön pääasialliset huolet oppilaiden mielenterveydestä liittyivät haastaviin tilanteisiin oppilaiden kanssa sekä siihen, miten mielenterveysongelmista kärsiviä oppilaita tulisi tukea. Koulunterveydenhoitajilla on valmiuksia oppilaiden mielenterveyden tukemiseen, mutta he toivoivat lisäkoulutusta interventioista. Verkkopohjainen tukiohjelma oli soveltuva käytettäväksi mielenterveysinterventiona kouluympäristössä. Oppilaat käyttivät tukiohjelmaa aktiivisesti ja antoivat siitä positiivista palautetta. Lisäksi se auttoi tunnistamaan oppilaita, joilla oli tarvetta mielenterveyden tuelle. Opetushenkilöstön ja kouluterveydenhoitajien valmiuksia oppilaiden mielenterveyden tukemiseen tulisi vahvistaa tarjoamalla heille koulutusta ja mielenterveysinterventioita käyttöön. Tämä tukisi oppilaiden mielenterveyttä sekä mielenterveys ongelmien varhaista tunnistamista kouluissa. Verkkopohjaiset tukiohjelmat voivat olla hyödyllisiä oppilaiden mielenterveyden tukemisessa

The future of technology enhanced active learning – a roadmap

The notion of active learning refers to the active involvement of learner in the learning process, capturing ideas of learning-by-doing and the fact that active participation and knowledge construction leads to deeper and more sustained learning. Interactivity, in particular learnercontent interaction, is a central aspect of technology-enhanced active learning. In this roadmap, the pedagogical background is discussed, the essential dimensions of technology-enhanced active learning systems are outlined and the factors that are expected to influence these systems currently and in the future are identified. A central aim is to address this promising field from a best practices perspective, clarifying central issues and formulating an agenda for future developments in the form of a roadmap

An agent-based fuzzy cognitive map approach to the strategic marketing planning for industrial firms

This is the post-print version of the final paper published in Industrial Marketing Management. The published article is available from the link below. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. Copyright @ 2013 Elsevier B.V.Industrial marketing planning is a typical example of an unstructured decision making problem due to the large number of variables to consider and the uncertainty imposed on those variables. Although abundant studies identified barriers and facilitators of effective industrial marketing planning in practice, the literature still lacks practical tools and methods that marketing managers can use for the task. This paper applies fuzzy cognitive maps (FCM) to industrial marketing planning. In particular, agent based inference method is proposed to overcome dynamic relationships, time lags, and reusability issues of FCM evaluation. MACOM simulator also is developed to help marketing managers conduct what-if scenarios to see the impacts of possible changes on the variables defined in an FCM that represents industrial marketing planning problem. The simulator is applied to an industrial marketing planning problem for a global software service company in South Korea. This study has practical implication as it supports marketing managers for industrial marketing planning that has large number of variables and their cause–effect relationships. It also contributes to FCM theory by providing an agent based method for the inference of FCM. Finally, MACOM also provides academics in the industrial marketing management discipline with a tool for developing and pre-verifying a conceptual model based on qualitative knowledge of marketing practitioners.Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (Korea

Advanced Techniques for Assets Maintenance Management

16th IFAC Symposium on Information Control Problems in Manufacturing INCOM 2018 Bergamo, Italy, 11–13 June 2018. Edited by Marco Macchi, László Monostori, Roberto PintoThe aim of this paper is to remark the importance of new and advanced techniques supporting decision making in different business processes for maintenance and assets management, as well as the basic need of adopting a certain management framework with a clear processes map and the corresponding IT supporting systems. Framework processes and systems will be the key fundamental enablers for success and for continuous improvement. The suggested framework will help to define and improve business policies and work procedures for the assets operation and maintenance along their life cycle. The following sections present some achievements on this focus, proposing finally possible future lines for a research agenda within this field of assets management