Compositional Model Repositories via Dynamic Constraint Satisfaction with Order-of-Magnitude Preferences

The predominant knowledge-based approach to automated model construction, compositional modelling, employs a set of models of particular functional components. Its inference mechanism takes a scenario describing the constituent interacting components of a system and translates it into a useful mathematical model. This paper presents a novel compositional modelling approach aimed at building model repositories. It furthers the field in two respects. Firstly, it expands the application domain of compositional modelling to systems that can not be easily described in terms of interacting functional components, such as ecological systems. Secondly, it enables the incorporation of user preferences into the model selection process. These features are achieved by casting the compositional modelling problem as an activity-based dynamic preference constraint satisfaction problem, where the dynamic constraints describe the restrictions imposed over the composition of partial models and the preferences correspond to those of the user of the automated modeller. In addition, the preference levels are represented through the use of symbolic values that differ in orders of magnitude

CBR and MBR techniques: review for an application in the emergencies domain

The purpose of this document is to provide an in-depth analysis of current reasoning engine practice and the integration strategies of Case Based Reasoning and Model Based Reasoning that will be used in the design and development of the RIMSAT system. RIMSAT (Remote Intelligent Management Support and Training) is a European Commission funded project designed to: a.. Provide an innovative, 'intelligent', knowledge based solution aimed at improving the quality of critical decisions b.. Enhance the competencies and responsiveness of individuals and organisations involved in highly complex, safety critical incidents - irrespective of their location. In other words, RIMSAT aims to design and implement a decision support system that using Case Base Reasoning as well as Model Base Reasoning technology is applied in the management of emergency situations. This document is part of a deliverable for RIMSAT project, and although it has been done in close contact with the requirements of the project, it provides an overview wide enough for providing a state of the art in integration strategies between CBR and MBR technologies.Postprint (published version

A sustainable infrastructure delivery model: value added strategy in the Nigerian construction industry

The current economy reforms strategy by the Nigerian government promotes competition among private contractors, which are comprised of local and foreign contractors, in order to achieve value added infrastructure delivery. Resulting competitive bidding processes between multinational construction corporations (MCC) and local construction contractors (LCC) has had mixed comments among stakeholders, with a need for a more sustainable and holistic value approach identified. The aim of this research is to develop a sustainable infrastructure delivery model (SID). The key research methodology is based on extensive literature review and questionnaire survey. SID is developed on the principles and philosophy of soft system methodology (SSM) and analytic network process (ANP). In order to evaluate the significance of MCC and LCC through SID model, questionnaire surveys were conducted. Feedback was collected from experts in the Nigerian construction sector who assessed the relative importance of formulated decision criteria, which were sought under 7 key factors. Data simulation revealed that, through competitive bidding, significant achievements have been made in the delivery of constructed facilities. It was also found that the policy lacked holistic value principles that integrated ethical stance and monetary returns on investment. In this study, SID framework has been presented, clearly showing needs for integration of economic and ethical stances in order to achieve a sustainable infrastructure delivery

Second CLIPS Conference Proceedings, volume 1

Topics covered at the 2nd CLIPS Conference held at the Johnson Space Center, September 23-25, 1991 are given. Topics include rule groupings, fault detection using expert systems, decision making using expert systems, knowledge representation, computer aided design and debugging expert systems

Budapest Bridges Benchmarking

This paper is concerned with the comparison of different scaling methods which are applied to a complex bridge evaluation problem. It is shown that both tangible and intangible data and satisfaction of multiple criteria are essential to the success of such projects. Some new inconsistency measures for the matrices emerging in the decision making process are also used. A detailed numerical analysis of the results is presented.

The development of an expert system shell with a mixed knowledge representation, explicit control of reasoning and a truth maintenance system

Bibliography: pages 227-236.This thesis concentrates on several important issues in expert system research, namely - representation of knowledge - control of reasoning - implementation of non-monotonic logics via truth maintenance systems. There are three parts to this thesis. PART1 covers the background research in the above mentioned topics. PART2 discusses the WISE system and the way in which research from PART1 was applied to the development of the WISE shell. PART3 considers the features of other expert system shells

Ontology modelling methodology for temporal and interdependent applications

The increasing adoption of Semantic Web technology by several classes of applications in recent years, has made ontology engineering a crucial part of application development. Nowadays, the abundant accessibility of interdependent information from multiple resources and representing various fields such as health, transport, and banking etc., further evidence the growing need for utilising ontology for the development of Web applications. While there have been several advances in the adoption of the ontology for application development, less emphasis is being made on the modelling methodologies for representing modern-day application that are characterised by the temporal nature of the data they process, which is captured from multiple sources. Taking into account the benefits of a methodology in the system development, we propose a novel methodology for modelling ontologies representing Context-Aware Temporal and Interdependent Systems (CATIS). CATIS is an ontology development methodology for modelling temporal interdependent applications in order to achieve the desired results when modelling sophisticated applications with temporal and inter dependent attributes to suit today's application requirements

A pollen identification expert system ; an application of expert system techniques to biological identification : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Computer Science Massey University

The application of expert systems techniques to biological identification has been investigated and a system developed which assists a user to identify and count air-borne pollen grains. The present system uses a modified taxonomic data matrix as the structure for the knowledge base. This allows domain experts to easily assess and modify the knowledge using a familiar data structure. The data structure can be easily converted to rules or a simple frame-based structure if required for other applications. A method of ranking the importance of characters for identifying each taxon has been developed which assists the system to quickly narrow an identification by rejecting or accepting candidate taxa. This method is very similar to that used by domain experts