The business machine in biology: the commercialization of AI in the life science

This paper traces one important trajectory in the history of expert systems. Through a collaboration between Edward Feigenbaum and the geneticist Joshua Lederberg, Nobel Laureate in Medicine, AI became deeply connected to the life sciences. Biology was a crucial test-bed for some of Feigenbaums systems and, in the long term, these systems had a transformative effect on biology. In particular, the work of Feigenbaum and his collaborators and students, brought biology and computing together in especially powerful ways. We now take for granted that biology can be computerized we have whole sub-disciplines such as bioinformatics, biocomputing, and computational biology devoted to the task of studying life as information. The computer systems and software that Feigenbaums lab helped to develop played an important role in establishing the possibility of these kinds of work

Quality Gurus

Od početka industrijske proizvodnje do danas, kvaliteta se razvijala od jednostavnog kontroliranja, preko osiguranja i upravaljanja kvalitetom do razine perfekcije. Važnu ulogu u razvoju misli o kvaliteti, kao i njenu implementaciju u gospodarstvu imali su gurui kvalitete. Cilj ovog rada je dati pregled najvažnijih doprinosa, s osnovnim biografskim podacima, devetorice najzna ajnijih gurua kvalitete: Edward Deming, Joseph Juran, Philip Crosby, Kaoru Ishikawa, Genichi Taguchi, Armand Feigenbaum, Shigeo Shingo,TomPeters i Claus Moller.Since the beginning of industrial production to the present, quality has been evolving from simple control through quality assurance and quality management to perfection level. An important role in the development of ideas about quality, as well as its implementation in the economy was played by the Quality Gurus. The aim of this work is to review the most important contribution, with basic biographical information, of nine major Quality Gurus: Edward Deming, Joseph Juran, Philip Crosby, Kaoru Ishikawa, Genichi Taguchi, Armand Feigenbaum, Shigeo Shing, Tom Peters and Claus Moller

Chaos at Fifty

In 1963 Edward Lorenz revealed deterministic predictability to be an illusion and gave birth to a field that still thrives. This Feature Article discusses Lorenz's discovery and developments that followed from it.Comment: For an animated visualization of the Lorenz attractor, click here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iu4RdmBVdp

Synchronization Limits of Chaotic Circuits

Through system modeling with electronic circuits, two circuits were constructed that exhibit chaos over a wide ranges of initial conditions. The two circuits were one that modeled an algebraically simple “jerk” function and a resistor-inductor-diode (RLD) circuit where the diode was reverse-biased on the positive voltage cycle of the alternating current source. Using simulation data from other experiments, the waveforms, bifurcation plots, and phase space plots of the concrete circuit were verified. Identical circuits were then built containing variable components and coupled to their original, matching circuits. The variable components were used to observe a wide range of conditions to establish the desynchronization parameters and the range of synchronization

The place of expert systems in a typology of information systems

This article considers definitions and claims of Expert Systems ( ES) and analyzes them in view of traditional Information systems (IS). It is argued that the valid specifications for ES do not differ fran those for IS. Consequently the theoretical study and the practical development of ES should not be a monodiscipline. Integration of ES development in classical mathematics and computer science opens the door to existing knowledge and experience. Aspects of existing ES are reviewed from this interdisciplinary point of view

Boston University Baroque Orchestra, December 4, 2008

This is the concert program of the Boston University Baroque Orchestra performance on Thursday, December 4, 2008 at 8:00 p.m., at Room 102, 855 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts. Works performed were Concerto for two violas and strings by Georg Philipp Telemann, Suite for strings by Henry Purcell, Concerto grosso in F. op. 6, no. 9 by George Frideric Handel, and Motet, Lange mala, umbrae, terrores, RV 629 by Antonio Vivaldi. Digitization for Boston University Concert Programs was supported by the Boston University Center for the Humanities Library Endowed Fund

Knowledge Engineering and Intelligence Gathering

A process of intelligence gathering begins when a user enters a query into the system. Several objects can match the result of a query with different degrees of relevance. Most systems estimate a numeric value about how well each object matches the query and classifies objects according to this value. Many researches have focused on practices of intelligence gathering. In knowledge engineering, knowledge gathering consists in fiding it from structured and unstructured sources in a way that must represent knowledge in a way that facilitates inference. DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.32191.1552

On the equality of Hausdorff and box counting dimensions

By viewing the covers of a fractal as a statistical mechanical system, the exact capacity of a multifractal is computed. The procedure can be extended to any multifractal described by a scaling function to show why the capacity and Hausdorff dimension are expected to be equal.Comment: CYCLER Paper 93mar001 Latex file with 3 PostScript figures (needs psfig.sty

Reading "all about" computerization: five common genres of social analysis

This paper examines unstated, but critical, social assumptions which underlie analyses of computerization. It focuses on the popular, professional and scholarly literature which claims to describe the actual nature of computerization, the character of computer use, and the social choices and changes that result from computerization. This literature can be usefully segmented five ideal type genres: utopian, anti-utopian, social realism, social theory, and analytical reduction. Each genre is characterized and illustrated. The strengths and weaknesses of each genre are described. In the 1990s, there will be a large market for social analyses of computerization. Utopian analyses are most likely to domínate the popular and professional discourse. The empirically oriented accounts of social realism, social theory and analytical reduction, are likely to be much less common and also less commonly seen and read by computer professionals and policymakers. These genres are relatively subtle, portray a more ambiguous world, and have less rhetorical power to capture the imagination of readers. Even though they are more scientific, these empirically anchored genres don't seem to appeal to many scientists and engineers. It is ironic that computing -- often portrayed as an instrument of knowledge -- is primarily the subject of discourses whose knowledge claims are most suspect. Conversely, the discourses whose claims as valid knowledge are strongest seems to have much less appeal in the mass media and technological communities