A branch and bound algorithm to optimize the representation of tabular decision processe.

Decision situations have various aspects: knowledge acquisition and structuring, knowledge representation, knowledge validation and decision making. It has been recognized in literature that decision tables can play an important role in each of these stages. It is however not necessary to use only one representation formalism during the whole life cycle of an intelligent system. Likewise it is possible that different formats of the same formalism serve different purposes in the development process.Important in this respect is the search for automated and, if possible, optimized transitions between different formats of a formalism and between various formalisms. In this paper a branch and bound algorithm is presented that transforms expanded decision tables, that, because of their explicit enumeration of all decision cases primarily serve an acquisition and verification function, into optimized contracted decision tables, primarily used as target representation of a decision process. An optimal contracted decision table is a contracted decision table with a condition order which results in the minimum number of contracted decision columns.

Introduction to Nietzsche on Mind and Nature

This chapter provides summaries of the chapter of this book and introduces the major themes and debates addressed in the volume. Discussed are Nietzsche’s metaphysics; his philosophy of mind in light of contemporary views; the question of panpsychism of Beyond Good and Evil 36; the rejection of dualism in favour of monism, in particular a monism of value; Nietzsche’s positions on consciousness and embodied cognition in light of recent cognitive science; a conception of freedom and agency based on an intrinsically motivating; embodied sense of self-efficacy; a Nietzschean account of valuing understood as drive-induced affective orientations of which an agent approves; the idea of ressentiment conceived as a process of intentional, not reflectively strategic, self-deception about one’s own conscious mental states; and a defence of a Nietzschean naturalism

Restructuring and simplifying rule bases.

Rule bases are commonly acquired, by expert and/or knowledge engineer, in a form which is well suited for acquisition purposes. When the knowledge base is executed, however, a different structure may be required. Moreover, since human experts normally do not provide the knowledge in compact chunks, rule bases often suffer from redundancy. This may considerably harm efficiency. In this paper a procedure is examined to transform rules that are specified in the knowledge acquisition process into an efficient rule base by way of decision tables. This transformation algorithms allows the generation of a minimal rule representation of the knowledge, and verification and optimization of rule bases and other specification (e.g. legal texts, procedural descriptions, ...). The proposed procedures are fully supported by the PROLOGA tool.

A new fast technique for the modeling of very large planar microwave circuits

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Hydrological controls on nutrient exportation from old-growth evergreen rainforests and Eucalyptus nitens plantation in headwater catchments at Southern Chile

Soil cover disturbances have a direct effect on biogeochemistry, potentially enhancing nutrient loss, land degradation and associated changes in ecosystem services and livelihood support. The objective of this study was to assess how canopy affected throughfall chemistry and how hydrology affected stream nutrient load responses in two watersheds dominated by native old-growth evergreen rainforest (NF) and exotic plantation of Eucalyptus nitens (EP), located at the Coastal mountain range of southern Chile (40˚S). We measured nitrogen (NO3-N, NH4-N, Organic-N, Total-N) and total phosphorus (Total-P) at catchment discharge, and δ18O in throughfall precipitation and stream discharge in both catchments, in order to separate throughfall (or new water) contributions during storm events. It was hypothesized that all nutrients showed an increase in concentration as discharge increased (or enhanced hydrological access), in EP; but not in NF. Our results indicated that Organic-N, Total-N and Total-P concentrations were positively related to discharge. However, 3 NO− -N showed a negative correlation with catchment discharge