Research on speech understanding and related areas at SRI

Research capabilities on speech understanding, speech recognition, and voice control are described. Research activities and the activities which involve text input rather than speech are discussed

The nature and evaluation of commercial expert system building tools, revision 1

This memorandum reviews the factors that constitute an Expert System Building Tool (ESBT) and evaluates current tools in terms of these factors. Evaluation of these tools is based on their structure and their alternative forms of knowledge representation, inference mechanisms and developer end-user interfaces. Next, functional capabilities, such as diagnosis and design, are related to alternative forms of mechanization. The characteristics and capabilities of existing commercial tools are then reviewed in terms of these criteria

Knowledge Representation with Ontologies: The Present and Future

Recently, we have seen an explosion of interest in ontologies as artifacts to represent human knowledge and as critical components in knowledge management, the semantic Web, business-to-business applications, and several other application areas. Various research communities commonly assume that ontologies are the appropriate modeling structure for representing knowledge. However, little discussion has occurred regarding the actual range of knowledge an ontology can successfully represent

A study of the very high order natural user language (with AI capabilities) for the NASA space station common module

The requirements are identified for a very high order natural language to be used by crew members on board the Space Station. The hardware facilities, databases, realtime processes, and software support are discussed. The operations and capabilities that will be required in both normal (routine) and abnormal (nonroutine) situations are evaluated. A structure and syntax for an interface (front-end) language to satisfy the above requirements are recommended

A study of System Interface Sets (SIS) for the host, target and integration environments of the Space Station Program (SSP)

System interface sets (SIS) for large, complex, non-stop, distributed systems are examined. The SIS of the Space Station Program (SSP) was selected as the focus of this study because an appropriate virtual interface specification of the SIS is believed to have the most potential to free the project from four life cycle tyrannies which are rooted in a dependance on either a proprietary or particular instance of: operating systems, data management systems, communications systems, and instruction set architectures. The static perspective of the common Ada programming support environment interface set (CAIS) and the portable common execution environment (PCEE) activities are discussed. Also, the dynamic perspective of the PCEE is addressed

Roles in construction projects: analysis and terminology

Standard form contracts are typically developed through a negotiated consensus, unless they are proffered by one specific interest group. Previously published plans of work and other descriptions of the processes in construction projects tend to focus on operational issues, or they tend to be prepared from the point of view of one or other of the dominant interest groups. Legal practice in the UK permits those who draft contracts to define their terms as they choose. There are no definitive rulings from the courts that give an indication as to the detailed responsibilities of project participants. The science of terminology offers useful guidance for discovering and describing terms and their meanings in their practical context, but has never been used for defining terms for responsibilities of participants in the construction project management process. Organizational analysis enables the management task to be deconstructed into its elemental parts in order that effective organizational structures can be developed. Organizational mapping offers a useful technique for reducing text-based descriptions of project management roles and responsibilities to a comparable basis. Research was carried out by means of a desk study, detailed analysis of nine plans of work and focus groups representing all aspects of the construction industry. No published plan of work offers definitive guidance. There is an enormous amount of variety in the way that terms are used for identifying responsibilities of project participants. A catalogue of concepts and terms (a “Terminology”) has been compiled and indexed to enable those who draft contracts to choose the most appropriate titles for project participants. The purpose of this terminology is to enable the selection and justification of appropriate terms in order to help define roles. The terminology brings an unprecedented clarity to the description of roles and responsibilities in construction projects and, as such, will be helpful for anyone seeking to assemble a team and specify roles for project participants

The INCF Digital Atlasing Program: Report on Digital Atlasing Standards in the Rodent Brain

The goal of the INCF Digital Atlasing Program is to provide the vision and direction necessary to make the rapidly growing collection of multidimensional data of the rodent brain (images, gene expression, etc.) widely accessible and usable to the international research community. This Digital Brain Atlasing Standards Task Force was formed in May 2008 to investigate the state of rodent brain digital atlasing, and formulate standards, guidelines, and policy recommendations.

Our first objective has been the preparation of a detailed document that includes the vision and specific description of an infrastructure, systems and methods capable of serving the scientific goals of the community, as well as practical issues for achieving
the goals. This report builds on the 1st INCF Workshop on Mouse and Rat Brain Digital Atlasing Systems (Boline et al., 2007, _Nature Preceedings_, doi:10.1038/npre.2007.1046.1) and includes a more detailed analysis of both the current state and desired state of digital atlasing along with specific recommendations for achieving these goals

Occupational injuries among construction workers at the Chep Lap Kok Airport construction site, Hong Kong : analysis of accident rates, and the association between injuries, error types and their contributing factors : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Aviation at Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand

Accidents on construction sites are a major cause of morbidity and mortality in Hong Kong. This study investigated the likely causes of occupational injuries that were present among the construction workers during the construction of the new Chep Lap Kok (CLK) Airport in Hong Kong. In order to accumulate the requisite information, 1648 accident investigation reports in a four-year period (1993-1996) were reviewed. The first part of the study described the pattern and magnitude of occupational injuries among the CLK construction workers and compared the accident rates of the CLK workers with those of the construction industry as a whole in Hong Kong. The study examined the effects of the workplace infrastructure at CLK in order to explain why this site presented fewer work place injuries and accidents than other workplaces. The second part of the research used these injury and accident occurrences as the basis to construct the causes of accidents and injuries within an error causation classification system. The results showed that at CLK, the commonest workplace injury was contusion & crushing which appeared to be due to mistakes made through lapses in memory often caused by pressure of work being imposed on the employee. This section also indicated what types of errors were most closely associated with what kinds of injuries and what conditions were most likely to trigger these types of events. Among the major associations were links between contusion and crushing and violation error, perceptual error; between memory lapse and work pressure, equipment deficiencies, poor working environment, fatigue, and between violation error and work pressure. The research suggested that work pressure was an important contributing factor to construction injury and it increased the prevalence of a human error type namely, memory lapse many fold. The outcomes from this study provide important new information on the causes and types of errors which have led to occupational injuries among construction workers in Hong Kong. A better understanding of the human factors-based causes of accidents and injuries in the construction industry and an inculcation of a safety culture on construction sites are critically important in the reduction of the rate of construction accidents and improvement of workers' human performance. The results should assist the construction industry in the designing accident prevention training and education strategies, estimating human error probabilities, and the monitoring organizational safety performance

Integral Facade Construction

Curtain wall constructions are one of the most applied facade constructions today. Independently attached to the primary load bearing structure of the building they protect the building’s interior from external climate conditions and allow great design freedom. With continuously rising requirements in terms of energy savings the constructional principle has reached its limits and strategies for improvement are needed. Incrementally evolved over time it is closely related to the architectural design and building processes. Based on literature research and stakeholder interviews the dissertation maps out the traditional and craftsmanship related facade design and construction process currently employed. In a next step, future challenges for facade constructions to cope with a changing market environment are identified. A facade function tree is developed and the theory of product architecture is applied to create a comparative basis for analysing different historical and contemporary facade products and systems. The function tree as well as the analysis clearly show how the fragmented market structures has influenced contemporary facade construction and leads to extremely modular product architectures. Numerous case studies for a new approach are conducted and summarised in several matrices. The case studies show how different modular and integral constructional strategies can respond to the future challenges. The pros and cons of different facade solutions, their potential for innovation and robustness in terms of market conditions are investigated. The dissertation concludes that a greater diversity of fa.ade types with a more integral construction is needed to meet the sometimes conflicting future challenges. If this can be realised, a greater diversity of more integral design and construction processes will evolve simultaneously. The role of the different stakeholders will change and a new way of educating architects or facade specialists will be required in order to meet the needs of the future building market: Away from a purely application oriented towards a product architecture driven approach, which clearly includes the implications of facade product architecture on the structure of the design and construction process

Integral Facade Construction:

Curtain wall constructions are one of the most applied facade constructions today. Independently attached to the primary load bearing structure of the building they protect the building’s interior from external climate conditions and allow great design freedom. With continuously rising requirements in terms of energy savings the constructional principle has reached its limits and strategies for improvement are needed. Incrementally evolved over time it is closely related to the architectural design and building processes. Based on literature research and stakeholder interviews the dissertation maps out the traditional and craftsmanship related facade design and construction process currently employed. In a next step, future challenges for facade constructions to cope with a changing market environment are identified. A facade function tree is developed and the theory of product architecture is applied to create a comparative basis for analysing different historical and contemporary facade products and systems. The function tree as well as the analysis clearly show how the fragmented market structures has influenced contemporary facade construction and leads to extremely modular product architectures. Numerous case studies for a new approach are conducted and summarised in several matrices. The case studies show how different modular and integral constructional strategies can respond to the future challenges. The pros and cons of different facade solutions, their potential for innovation and robustness in terms of market conditions are investigated. The dissertation concludes that a greater diversity of fa.ade types with a more integral construction is needed to meet the sometimes conflicting future challenges. If this can be realised, a greater diversity of more integral design and construction processes will evolve simultaneously. The role of the different stakeholders will change and a new way of educating architects or facade specialists will be required in order to meet the needs of the future building market: Away from a purely application oriented towards a product architecture driven approach, which clearly includes the implications of facade product architecture on the structure of the design and construction process