A DATA-DRIVEN USER INTERFACE GENERATOR FOR A GENERALIZED MULTIPLE CRITERIA DECISION SUPPORT SYSTEM

Information Systems Working Papers Serie

Designing Touchless Gesture-Based Interfaces for Human Computer Interaction: Insights from co-verbal gestures

Gesture-based interfaces are seen as effective means of enabling intuitive and natural means of interaction with technology. However, these interfaces can be effective and intuitive only if anchored in a deep understanding of how humans use gestures to communicate. Over the past three decades, anthropologists, psychologist, linguists and semioticians have proposed various approaches to the empirical study of human gestures. We present here our preliminary ideas to identify and gather the common characteristics of “naturalness” and “intuitiveness” in touchless gesture production through empirical studies of interpersonal communication

USING RESTRICTED NATURAL LANGUAGE FOR DATA RETRIEVAL: A PLAN FOR FIELD EVALUATION

One strategy that has been proposed for dealing with the growing backlog for development of applications is to give casual users languages for interacting directly with databases. Yet, there is little agreement on the form such languages should take. Should they be natural-like, conforming closely to a user's native tongue or should they be structured to take advantage of the characteristics of formal languages? This paper presents the rationale for and design of a field evaluation of natural language for data retrieval. The natural language system and application are described along with the research design of the project. The results of the first part of the study, a laboratory experiment to investigate whether users perform better with an artificial or natural language, suggest that after equal amounts of training no difference in subject performance is found between languages using a paper and pencil test . The insights gained to date are summarized.Information Systems Working Papers Serie

Natural Language for Database Queries: A Laboratory Study

Technical feasibility and promise of practical use for querying databases in natural 1 anguage (for example, English) has been demonstrated by a large number of experimental systems, and the commercial availability of at 1 east one such system. Yet natural 1 anguage continues to be the most controversi al among the 1 anguage interfaces that have been proposed for direct interaction with databases. Most Natural Language Query Systems (NLGS) have focused on a certal n cl ass of users - appl icati on speci al 1 sts not requi red to possess technical skills - and have emphasized easy transportability to a variety of application domains. Based on these principles, and considering the limitations of state-of-the-art natural language processing, these NLGS have adopted particul ar design structures and goal s. Are these query systems meeti ng thei r design goal s? More importantly, are these the appropriate goals? These seem to be the major questions for which no concl usive answers have yet been given. Most experimental research in the area has addressed the first question. Fiel d studies alone are often hampered by implementation limitations, and of course, by the lack of a controlled environment. Thus, a negative answer to the first question, as is usually the case with prototype systems, makes the determination of an answer for the second question very difficult. A recently compl eted study at New York University constitutes a step toward resolving some of the issues pertaining to the use of natural language for database queries. The overall approach involves a. combi nation of expl oratory field evaluations with controlled laboratory studies to examine these issues by comparing performance between subjects using the formal database language SaL and subjects using a prototype natural language query system (NLaS) developed in the IBM Heidelberg Scientific Center. This paper describes in detail a laboratory study which was conducted as part of the project. In the 1 aboratory study, paid subjects were trai ned in the appl ication and the respective languages (SGL and NLOS) and then given an exam

Non-Uniformity of Pellets Coating, Effect on the Dose Release Profile andHow to Improve the Coating Process by Reducing the Electrostatic Charging of the Pellets

The aim of this work was to study the effect of several process parameters used during pellets coating in two wurster fluid beds of different scales on: a) the uniformity of pellets coating, and b) the presence of an initial burst in the release profile caused by the existence of a significant fraction of pellets having a very thin film coating. The pellets used in this work presented high insulating properties. The pellets were coated with extended release films made mainly of ethyl cellulose and it was shown that larger pellets had a thicker coating. The choice of the process parameters had a large effect on the amount of pellets that were subtracted from the coating process due to the buildup of electrostatic charges on the pellets. Using not too high fluidizing air flows, pellets of larger size, a smaller pellets load and humidified air to fluidize the pellets resulted in more uniform coatings and, consequently, in more favorable release profiles that did not present or presented a reduced initial burst release

Non-Uniformity of Pellets Coating, Effect on the Dose Release Profile andHow to Improve the Coating Process by Reducing the Electrostatic Charging of the Pellets

The aim of this work was to study the effect of several process parameters used during pellets coating in two wurster fluid beds of different scales on: a) the uniformity of pellets coating, and b) the presence of an initial burst in the release profile caused by the existence of a significant fraction of pellets having a very thin film coating. The pellets used in this work presented high insulating properties. The pellets were coated with extended release films made mainly of ethyl cellulose and it was shown that larger pellets had a thicker coating. The choice of the process parameters had a large effect on the amount of pellets that were subtracted from the coating process due to the buildup of electrostatic charges on the pellets. Using not too high fluidizing air flows, pellets of larger size, a smaller pellets load and humidified air to fluidize the pellets resulted in more uniform coatings and, consequently, in more favorable release profiles that did not present or presented a reduced initial burst release

A FIELD EVALUATION OF NATURAL LANGUAGE FOR DATA RETRIEVAL

Although a large number of natural language database interfaces have been developed, there have been few empirical studies of their practical usefulness. This paper presents the design and results of a field evaluation of a natural language system - NLS - used for data retrieval . A balanced, multifactorial design comparing NLS with a reference retrieval language, SQL, is described. The data are analyzed on two levels: work task (n=87) and query (n=1081). SQL performed better than NLS on a variety of measures, but NLS required less effort to use. Subjects performed much poorer than expected based on the results of laboratory studies. This finding is attributed to the complexity of the field setting and to optimism in grading laboratory experiments. The methodology developed for studying computer languages in real work settings was successful in consistently measuring differences in treatments over a variety of conditions.Information Systems Working Papers Serie

Исследование состава полиэтиленовых нефтепромысловых труб по итогам эксплуатации

Agent-based simulations have proven to be suitable to investigate many kinds of problems, especially in the field of social science. But to provide useful insights, the behaviour of the involved, simulated actors needs to reflect relevant features of the real world. In this paper, we address one particular aspect in this regard, namely the correct reflection of an actor's evolution during a simulation. Very often some knowledge exists about how an actor can evolve, for example, the typical development stages of entrepreneurs when investigating entrepreneurship networks. We propose to model this knowledge explicitly using evolution links between roles enriched with suitable conditions and extend i*, an agent- and goal-oriented modelling framework, thereby. We provide a mapping to the simulation environment ConGolog that serves as an intermediary approach between not providing change of behaviour at all and very open approaches to behaviour adaptation such as learning