An Intentional Arithmetic for Qualitative Decision Making

Prescriptive decision analysis is a quantitative exercise. Options are assigned weights and probabilities to calculate an expected value. However, we view decision making as a qualitative process. Instead of converting qualitative features into numbers, we advocate converting numbers into qualitative features. As part of a larger effort to develop a decision simulation system [Slade et al. 1995], we are motivated to provide a principled means for automated, qualitative analysis. Following the artificial intelligence tradition of qualitative physics, we have developed an intentional arithmetic for interpreting quantitative data in a qualitative manner. Unlike the physical world, intentional domains require the analysis of the underlying goals of the decision maker. These goals, and their relative importance, provide a useful device for interpreting otherwise ambiguous data. In the next section, we discuss the background work in qualitative reasonsing and its relevance for decision making. We then describe our proposed intentional arithmetic for qualitative decision makin

Web Living Case: A Web Based Business Case Delivery System for Collaborative Work

This paper describes the Web Living Case (WLC), a Web based business case delivery system that incorporates support for collaborative work. WLC provides a more interesting environment for case presentation than do traditional written cases. To facilitate effective collaboration, WLC provides shared workspaces for students working on common tasks, bulletin boards, and real-time conversation support, and a consistent and friendly user-interface

EXPLOITING HYPERTEXT VALUATION LINKS FOR BUSINESS DECISION MAKING: A PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT ILLUSTRATION

In this paper we discuss the application of hypertext valuation links to decision support for business problems. Valuation links enable us to relate hypertext link traversal to computation in a way that affects the contents of a hypertext node while retaining the "browsing metaphor'' of hypertext. This helps to support quantitative or qualitative reasoning about business problems when described in terms of hypertext nodes that are computational in nature. We illustrate these ideas in the domain of securities analysis and portfolio management, where a "buy side" portfolio manager may need to clarify his understanding of the basis of a "sell side" securities analyst's recommendations about securities that are candidates for inclusion in a portfolio.Information Systems Working Papers Serie

Observation of incomplete fusion at low angular momenta

Present work deals with experimental studies of incomplete fusion reaction dynamics using off-line γ-ray spectrometry at energies as low as ≈3-6 MeV/nucleon. Excitation functions for five reaction products populated via complete and/or incomplete fusion processes in 16O+130Te system have been measured and compared with the predictions of the statistical model code PACE4. A significant enhancement in the measured excitation functions compared to theoretical predictions for α-emitting channels has been observed and is attributed to incomplete fusion processes. The relative strength of incomplete fusion has been found to increase with projectile energy. Results show that incomplete fusion is associated even for angular momenta lesser than the critical angular momentum for complete fusion and also reveals importance of incomplete fusion even at energies as low as ≈3-6 MeV/nucleon

Low energy incomplete fusion and its relevance to the synthesis of super heavy elements

To study the presence of incomplete fusion at energies around the Coulomb-barrier and to understand its dependence on various entrance-channel parameters, the incomplete fusion fractions have been deduced (i) from excitation function measurements for 18O,13,12C+159Tb, and (ii) from forward recoil range measurements for 12C+159Tb systems, at low energies (<7MeV/A). The data have been analyzed within the framework of compound nucleus decay, which suggests the production of xn/pxn-channels via complete fusion, as these are found to be well reproduced by PACE4 predictions, while, a significant enhancement in the excitation functions of α-emitting channels has been observed over the theoretical ones, which has been attributed due to the incomplete fusion processes. Further, the incomplete fusion events observed in case of forward recoil ranges have been explained on the basis of the breakup fusion model, where these events may be attributed to the fusion of 8Be and/or 4He from 12C projectile to the target nucleus. For better insight into the underlying dynamics, the deduced fractions of incomplete fusion have been compared with other nearby systems as a function of various entrance channel parameters. The incomplete fusion has been found to be sensitive to the projectile’s energy and alpha-Q-value of the projectile