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

Knowledge search for new product development: a multi-agent based methodology

Manufacturers are the leaders in developing new products to drive productivity. Higher productivity means more products based on the same materials, energy, labour, and capitals. New product development plays a critical role in the success of manufacturing firms. Activities in the product development process are dependent on the knowledge of new product development team members. Increasingly, many enterprises consider effective knowledge search to be a source of competitive advantage. This research presents an exploratory case study conducted at an aircraft manufacturer. This investigation uncovered six, empirically derived and theoretically informed, problems to enterprise knowledge search. They have been articulated as (i) the effectual web bandwidth limits search speed; (ii) less relevant search results based on word-frequency recognition models of search engine; (iii) un-useable techniques for enterprise search; (iv) rigour security, reliability, and company policy; (v) poor search performance about unstructured enterprise knowledge; (vi) the lack of tacit knowledge sharing. Existing search methodologies have focused on the internet search, rather than providing effective search for enterprise. This research aim is developed to assist the manufacturing enterprise in meeting the industrial requirements in the following way: a methodology and system that can improve the information and knowledge search performance in new product development process. Based on the exploratory case findings, a knowledge search methodology and system has been developed. Agent technology is used to fulfil the requirements of enterprise search. Some initial tests were conducted to better understand implementation issues and future deployment of the methodology and system in practice

On methodology in macroeconomics-with application to the demand for unskilled labour

Kurt W. Rothschild Lecture, Johannes Kepler University, Linz, 22 November 2001.

Idea Management: Enhancing External Innovation Capabilities within Front-End Activities

This study examines and verifies the factors influencing idea management in enhancing external innovation capabilities within front-end activities in large organisations. Previous studies have identified idea management as being in serious need of better management. This research aims to address this need by adding new knowledge and understanding to how organisations generate, search and select ideas internally and externally. Innovation is rapidly becoming a strategic priority, but there is a large gap between the perceived importance of innovation and the effectiveness of approaches used to support innovation. Idea management works under the premise that the innovation process is too important to be left to chance. Ideas are the starting point to every innovation. This research examines the concept of idea management, which acknowledges the importance of external ideas within the innovation process. External sources offer a huge amount of knowledge and ideas, much of which is unexpected and can therefore promote disruptive innovation. Idea management is characterised by a high degree of complexity and must be organised efficiently in order to work in the long-term. It is well established that there is a general lack of clarity, definition and understanding within the front-end of innovation in terms of language, processes and activities. This is why it is also referred to as the fuzzy front-end, occurring prior to when an idea receives formal funding. Several key activities include opportunity identification, problem definition, environmental scanning, and idea generation and evaluation. These activities involve leveraging internal and external innovation capabilities and is one of the reasons why this research focuses on better understanding and visualising this interaction by improving idea management practices. This iCase award was funded by the EPSRC and the multinational consumer goods company, Procter & Gamble (P&G). The research outcomes are of interest to large organisations looking to enhance how they manage their internal and external ideas. On a smaller scale, effective practices for internal idea generation are identified which could be of use to SMEs. The thesis will add to the field of front-end innovation literature regarding idea management effective practices, supported by quantitative data on a global scale. A blended methods approach was used where insights were verified through iteration between a systematic literature review, front-end model comparison, global industrial interviews, and a main survey conducted within P&G. This organisation is well known for their success with external search practices for innovation. The industrial interviews were conducted with P&G’s ‘Connect + Develop’ practitioners and were vital to gain an understanding of language and challenges related to the research questions. This guided the development of an industrial survey which assessed the effectiveness of an idea sourcing tool adopted by P&G. The findings from the survey provide further insight into how innovation landscaping tools are used in practice and ways in which to increase levels of tool adoption. This research finds that organisations do want to find and leverage high quality ideas but are unsure of how to best search for and select them. The proposed ‘Idea Infinity Framework’ helps to visualise, orientate and kick-start search and select processes in organisations. It argues that visualising the sources, interactions and issues to be aware of for idea quality will improve the effectiveness of front-end activities, as well as make better use of practitioner time, effort and funds. This study argues that idea management should take a proactive approach rather than a passive approach to the management of ideas (i.e. search and select) and become more integrated

Idea Management: Enhancing External Innovation Capabilities within Front-End Activities

This study examines and verifies the factors influencing idea management in enhancing external innovation capabilities within front-end activities in large organisations. Previous studies have identified idea management as being in serious need of better management. This research aims to address this need by adding new knowledge and understanding to how organisations generate, search and select ideas internally and externally. Innovation is rapidly becoming a strategic priority, but there is a large gap between the perceived importance of innovation and the effectiveness of approaches used to support innovation. Idea management works under the premise that the innovation process is too important to be left to chance. Ideas are the starting point to every innovation. This research examines the concept of idea management, which acknowledges the importance of external ideas within the innovation process. External sources offer a huge amount of knowledge and ideas, much of which is unexpected and can therefore promote disruptive innovation. Idea management is characterised by a high degree of complexity and must be organised efficiently in order to work in the long-term. It is well established that there is a general lack of clarity, definition and understanding within the front-end of innovation in terms of language, processes and activities. This is why it is also referred to as the fuzzy front-end, occurring prior to when an idea receives formal funding. Several key activities include opportunity identification, problem definition, environmental scanning, and idea generation and evaluation. These activities involve leveraging internal and external innovation capabilities and is one of the reasons why this research focuses on better understanding and visualising this interaction by improving idea management practices. This iCase award was funded by the EPSRC and the multinational consumer goods company, Procter & Gamble (P&G). The research outcomes are of interest to large organisations looking to enhance how they manage their internal and external ideas. On a smaller scale, effective practices for internal idea generation are identified which could be of use to SMEs. The thesis will add to the field of front-end innovation literature regarding idea management effective practices, supported by quantitative data on a global scale. A blended methods approach was used where insights were verified through iteration between a systematic literature review, front-end model comparison, global industrial interviews, and a main survey conducted within P&G. This organisation is well known for their success with external search practices for innovation. The industrial interviews were conducted with P&G’s ‘Connect + Develop’ practitioners and were vital to gain an understanding of language and challenges related to the research questions. This guided the development of an industrial survey which assessed the effectiveness of an idea sourcing tool adopted by P&G. The findings from the survey provide further insight into how innovation landscaping tools are used in practice and ways in which to increase levels of tool adoption. This research finds that organisations do want to find and leverage high quality ideas but are unsure of how to best search for and select them. The proposed ‘Idea Infinity Framework’ helps to visualise, orientate and kick-start search and select processes in organisations. It argues that visualising the sources, interactions and issues to be aware of for idea quality will improve the effectiveness of front-end activities, as well as make better use of practitioner time, effort and funds. This study argues that idea management should take a proactive approach rather than a passive approach to the management of ideas (i.e. search and select) and become more integrated

Representing archaeological uncertainty in cultural informatics

This thesis sets out to explore, describe, quantify, and visualise uncertainty in a cultural informatics context, with a focus on archaeological reconstructions. For quite some time, archaeologists and heritage experts have been criticising the often toorealistic appearance of three-dimensional reconstructions. They have been highlighting one of the unique features of archaeology: the information we have on our heritage will always be incomplete. This incompleteness should be reflected in digitised reconstructions of the past. This criticism is the driving force behind this thesis. The research examines archaeological theory and inferential process and provides insight into computer visualisation. It describes how these two areas, of archaeology and computer graphics, have formed a useful, but often tumultuous, relationship through the years. By examining the uncertainty background of disciplines such as GIS, medicine, and law, the thesis postulates that archaeological visualisation, in order to mature, must move towards archaeological knowledge visualisation. Three sequential areas are proposed through this thesis for the initial exploration of archaeological uncertainty: identification, quantification and modelling. The main contributions of the thesis lie in those three areas. Firstly, through the innovative design, distribution, and analysis of a questionnaire, the thesis identifies the importance of uncertainty in archaeological interpretation and discovers potential preferences among different evidence types. Secondly, the thesis uniquely analyses and evaluates, in relation to archaeological uncertainty, three different belief quantification models. The varying ways that these mathematical models work, are also evaluated through simulated experiments. Comparison of results indicates significant convergence between the models. Thirdly, a novel approach to archaeological uncertainty and evidence conflict visualisation is presented, influenced by information visualisation schemes. Lastly, suggestions for future semantic extensions to this research are presented through the design and development of new plugins to a search engine

Hybrid Expert System Approach For Evaluation Systems

Tez (Doktora) -- İstanbul Teknik Üniversitesi, Fen Bilimleri Enstitüsü, 2005Thesis (PhD) -- İstanbul Technical University, Institute of Science and Technology, 2005Bu çalışmada, değerlendirme sürecini kolaylaştıran ve hızlandıran “Genel Değerlendirme Süreci” ve “Genel Değerlendirme Modeli” geliştirildi. Farklı alanlardaki uzmanlardan elde edilen sezgisel bilgilerin ve farklı kaynaklardan elde edilen verilerin işlenebilmesi için bir yöntem geliştirildi. Bu yöntemde, değerlendirme bilgileri değerlendirme amaçlarının, değerlendirme kurallarının, ölçümlerin, metotların ve parametrelerin referans modeli olarak ifade edildi. Genel Değerlendirme Modeli’nin kullanılması, değerlendirme bilgilerinin ifade edilmesi için gerekli kuralların, ölçümlerin ve parametrelerin sayısını azalttı. Melez uzman sistem ve bulanık mantıktan meydana gelen “Zeki Değerlendirme Sistemi”, öğrencileri, eğitmenleri, işe başvuranları, bilgisayar tarafından meydana getirilmiş kuvvetler gibi sentetik kuvvetleri değerlendirdiği gibi gerçek sistemleri de değerlendirebilmekte olup “Genel Değerlendirme Süreci”ne, “Genel Değerlendirme Modeli”ne ve değerlendirme ihtiyaçlarına göre geliştirildi. Değerlendirme bazı açılardan belirsizlik içerdiğinden, üst seviye karar vermede bulanık mantıkla uzman sistemler beraber kullanıldı. “Zeki Değerlendirme Sistemi”, Hava Savunma Sistemi, öğretici performansı, pilot performansı değerlendirmesi ve eleman seçimi gibi çeşitli alanlara ilk defa uygulandı.In this study, “Common Evaluation Process” and “Common Evaluation Model”, which simplify, speed up evaluation process and decrease evaluation cost, were developed. A methodology was developed to handle the heuristic knowledge of experts from different domains and information from different sources for evaluation purposes. In this method, the knowledge was represented as reference model of evaluation objectives, production rules, measures, methods and parameters. Using “Common Evaluation Model” was decreased the number of evaluation rules, measures and parameters to represent evaluation knowledge. A hybrid expert-fuzzy system, called “Intelligent Evaluation System”, which can be used for evaluation of trainees, instructors, job applicants, synthetic environments such as simulators, computer generated forces as well as real systems was developed based on “Common Evaluation Process”, “Common Evaluation Model” and evaluation needs. As the evaluation includes uncertainty in some aspects, fuzzy logic was also incorporated with expert system for high level reasoning. “Intelligent Evaluation System” was implemented for the first time in various areas from different domains such as evaluation of Air Defence System, instructor performance, pilot performance and personnel selection.DoktoraPh

XML and Fuzzy-Based Two Various Knowledge Retrieval Methods in Edaphology

In this paper, we propose a proficient method for knowledge retrieval in edaphology to assist the edaphologists and those who are related with agriculture in a big way. The proposed method mainly consists of two phases of which the first one is to build the knowledge base using XML and the latter part deals with information retrieval using fuzzy search. Initially, the relational database is converted to XML database. This paper discusses two algorithms, one is when the soil characteristics are given as input to have the plant list and in the other, plant names are given as input to have the soil characteristics suited for the plant. While retrieving the query result, the crisp numerical values are converted to fuzzy value using the triangular fuzzy membership function and matched to those in database. Those which satisfy are added to the result list and subsequently, the frequency is found out to rank the result list so as to obtain the final sorted list. Performances metrics are used in order to evaluate the method and compared to baseline paper to identify the number of plants retrieved, ranking efficiency, and computation time and memory usage. Results obtained proved the validity of the method and the method obtained the average computation time of 0.102 seconds and average memory usage of 2 486 Kb, which are all far better than our previous method results

Ontologies learn by searching

Dissertation to obtain the Master degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer ScienceDue to the worldwide diversity of communities, a high number of ontologies representing the same segment of reality which are not semantically coincident have appeared. To solve this problem, a possible solution is to use a reference ontology to be the intermediary in the communications between the community enterprises and to outside. Since semantic mappings between enterprise‘s ontologies are established, this solution allows each of the enterprises to keep internally its own ontology and semantics unchanged. However information systems are not static, thus established mappings become obsoletes with time. This dissertation‘s objective is to identify a suitable method that combines semantic mappings with user‘s feedback, providing an automatic learning to ontologies & enabling auto-adaptability and dynamism to the information system

CHORUS Deliverable 2.1: State of the Art on Multimedia Search Engines

Based on the information provided by European projects and national initiatives related to multimedia search as well as domains experts that participated in the CHORUS Think-thanks and workshops, this document reports on the state of the art related to multimedia content search from, a technical, and socio-economic perspective. The technical perspective includes an up to date view on content based indexing and retrieval technologies, multimedia search in the context of mobile devices and peer-to-peer networks, and an overview of current evaluation and benchmark inititiatives to measure the performance of multimedia search engines. From a socio-economic perspective we inventorize the impact and legal consequences of these technical advances and point out future directions of research