A knowledge-based approach to improving optimization techniques in system planning

A knowledge-based (KB) approach to improve mathematical programming techniques used in the system planning environment is presented. The KB system assists in selecting appropriate optimization algorithms, objective functions, constraints and parameters. The scheme is implemented by integrating symbolic computation of rules derived from operator and planner's experience and is used for generalized optimization packages. The KB optimization software package is capable of improving the overall planning process which includes correction of given violations. The method was demonstrated on a large scale power system discussed in the paper

Legal knowledge engineering: Computing, logic and law

The general problem approached in this thesis is that of building computer based legal advisory programs (otherwise known as expert systems or Intelligent Knowledge Based Systems). Such computer systems should be able to provide an individual with advice about either the general legal area being investigated, or advice about how the individual should proceed in a given case. In part the thesis describes a program (the ELl program) which attempts to confront some of the problems inherent in the building of these systems. The ELl system is seen as an experimental program (currently handling welfare rights legislation) and development vehicle. It is not presented as a final commercially implementable program. We present a detailed criticism of the type of legal knowledge contained within the system. The second, though in part intertwined, major subject of the thesis describes the jurisprudential aspects of the attempt to model the law by logic, a conjunction which is seen to be at the heart of the computer/law problem. We suggest that the conjunction offers very little to those who are interested in the real application of the real law, and that this is most forcefully seen when a working computer system models that conjunction. Our conclusion is that neither logic nor rule-based methods are sufficient for handling legal knowledge. The novelty and import of this thesis is not simply that it presents a negative conclusion; rather that it offers a sound theoretical and pragmatic framework for understanding why these methods are insufficient - the limits to the field are, in fact, defined

Automated interpretation of digital images of hydrographic charts.

Details of research into the automated generation of a digital database of hydrographic charts is presented. Low level processing of digital images of hydrographic charts provides image line feature segments which serve as input to a semi-automated feature extraction system, (SAFE). This system is able to perform a great deal of the building of chart features from the image segments simply on the basis of proximity of the segments. The system solicits user interaction when ambiguities arise. IThe creation of an intelligent knowledge based system (IKBS) implemented in the form of a backward chained production rule based system, which cooperates with the SAFE system, is described. The 1KBS attempts to resolve ambiguities using domain knowledge coded in the form of production rules. The two systems communicate by the passing of goals from SAFE to the IKBS and the return of a certainty factor by the IKBS for each goal submitted. The SAFE system can make additional feature building decisions on the basis of collected sets of certainty factors, thus reducing the need for user interaction. This thesis establishes that the cooperating IKBS approach to image interpretation offers an effective route to automated image understanding

Optimalisasi Akad Mudharabah Dalam Perbankan Syariah

The principle of mudharabah is a unique part of Islamic banking products, because it has a philosophical difference between the conventional banking system and Islamic banking which adheres to the principle of profit or loss. Mudharabah is a partnership business covering capital owners (Shahib al-mal) and business actors (mudharib), aiming to gain profit (al-ribh) and divided according to agreement in the contract. This research is library research. While this research approach uses a statute approach, because the problems in this study are approached with positive legal norms and Islamic law. The purpose of writing scientific papers is to determine the extent to which Islamic banking in optimizing Mudharabah contracts as products in Islamic banking. The results of this study are one of the institutions that can guarantee the continued maintenance of compliance with Sharia or Islamic law is the DSN-MUI which gives sharia compliance compliance authorities (Shariah Compliance) is the Sharia Supervisory Board (DPS). The implementation of the Mudharabah contract in the Islamic banking system is one form of banking compliance with the sharia principles that DPS-MUI has applied to Islamic banking

Breathing life into the wooden model: a participant observation study of technical change

This thesis reports the results of fifteen m onths ofparticipant observation study of a major technological research and development project. The project, in the area of advanced factory automation, was part of the British government's Alvey Programme.The findings bear upon two main bodies of theorectical literature. The first is Marxist literature on technology, the state and the labour process. Participant observation study of this project reveals technological change to be a much more chaotic process than this literature assumes. The process, for example, is not guided by clear capitalist interests. The other body ofliterature is the 'actor-network' approach of Callon, Latour andLaw. In common with them, it is found that technological change is not merely a technical process - it is 'heterogeneous engineering' of both 'technical' and the 'social' simultaneously.However, the actor network theorists overstate the possibilities for this 'heterogeneous engineering'. It is neither as thoroughgoing or as successful as these writers might be read as asserting.A further conclusion is that the significance of gender for participant observation studies of science and technology has been underestim ated. In particular, the gender of the researcher appears to have an important bearing on the research process