Distributed intelligent control and management (DICAM) applications and support for semi-automated development

We have recently begun a 4-year effort to develop a new technology foundation and associated methodology for the rapid development of high-performance intelligent controllers. Our objective in this work is to enable system developers to create effective real-time systems for control of multiple, coordinated entities in much less time than is currently required. Our technical strategy for achieving this objective is like that in other domain-specific software efforts: analyze the domain and task underlying effective performance, construct parametric or model-based generic components and overall solutions to the task, and provide excellent means for specifying, selecting, tailoring or automatically generating the solution elements particularly appropriate for the problem at hand. In this paper, we first present our specific domain focus, briefly describe the methodology and environment we are developing to provide a more regular approach to software development, and then later describe the issues this raises for the research community and this specific workshop

The comparative study of a proficiency report in two selected schools of nursing

Thesis (M.S.)--Boston Universit

Master of Arts

thesisA nuanced understanding of negotiation is essential to combating civil wars, transnational challenges to order, and threatening nonstate actors in the global political arena. This quantitative study goes beyond structural explanations and evaluations of negotiations as mere outcomes to explore the processes and factors that cause nonstate armed groups in civil wars to pursue negotiations sooner. With the use of data on all civil wars from 1946-2011, this study utilizes competing risks survival analysis to demonstrate the relative importance of cultural loyalty to the local population, governing ambitions in the area, and assistance from a third party in the timing of negotiation pursuit by rebel groups. The central findings suggest that, regardless of a nonstate armed group's strength relative to the state, having an outside backer or the goal of defending a cultural identity is associated with earlier attempts at negotiation, while access to lootable resources appears to delay settlement pursuit

The significance of motivation and volition for practising musical instruments: What makes the difference between practicing keenly or reluctantly? Results of a diary-based study with pupils and students of schoolmusic

Jeder Mensch, der ein Musikinstrument erlernt (hat), weiß, dass die Motivation zum regelmäßigen Üben Schwankungen unterliegt. Einerseits gibt es Tage, an denen man sich auf das Üben freut, sehr viel Spaß daran hat und im Idealfall Flow-Erleben eintritt; andererseits gibt es aber auch Tage, an denen man überhaupt keine Lust zum Üben hat, es als unangenehm und mühsam empfindet und sich dazu überwinden muss. Hat jemand Lust zum Üben, so befindet er sich in einer sog. „motivationalen Steuerungslage“, die von einer „aktivierenden Ausrichtung des momentanen Lebensvollzuges auf einen positiv bewerteten Zielzustand“ geprägt ist. Ein „positiver Zielzustand“ kann beispielsweise das Beherrschen der Lieblingskomposition sein oder einfach ein gutes Gefühl, das sich beim Üben einstellt. Hier kommt ein appetitives Motivationssystem zum Tragen; wird hingegen ausschließlich geübt, um beispielsweise den Tadel des Instrumentallehrers zu vermeiden, so ist ein aversives Motivationssystem aktiv. Der Zielzustand besteht in diesem Fall in der „Vermeidung oder Abwehr unerwünschter Ereignisse“. (DIPF/Orig.)Everyone who has ever learned to play a musical instrument knows that his or her motivation to practice regularly is subject to fluctuation. There are days when you are looking forward to practicing, when it is highly joyful and flowexperience might occur, but there are also days when you feel no enthusiasm at all and have to force yourself to practice. In the former case, the person is in a “motivational state” of control. In the latter, if one has to overcome internal resistance to reach a goal, volitional processes come into effect, i.e. the person is in a “volitional state” of control. Volition helps to put intentions into action in spite of the partial or complete lack of motivation. To this end, so-called volitional strategies like control of motivation, attention and emotion will be employed. Differences between the states of motivational and volitional control manifest themselves mainly in one\u27s own phenomenal experience. Actions under motivational control seem to happen of their own accord and don’t require elaborate volitional processes even if they are objectively difficult. The inner experience of a “motivational state” of control is characterized by “pleasure of doing the things”, loss of sense of time and the experience that only little effort is needed. By contrast, actions requiring volitional control processes lack the pleasure of doing them and are accompanied by an experience of intense effort. The aforesaid volitional control procedures are necessary. (DIPF/Orig.

Architecture for Adaptive Intelligent Systems

We identify a class of niches to be occupied by 'adaptive intelligent systems (AISs)'. In contrast with niches occupied by typical AI agents, AIS niches present situations that vary dynamically along several key dimensions: different combinations of required tasks, different configurations of available resources, contextual conditions ranging from benign to stressful, and different performance criteria. We present a small class hierarchy of AIS niches that exhibit these dimensions of variability and describe a particular AIS niche, ICU (intensive care unit) patient monitoring, which we use for illustration throughout the paper. We have designed and implemented an agent architecture that supports all of different kinds of adaptation by exploiting a single underlying theoretical concept: An agent dynamically constructs explicit control plans to guide its choices among situation-triggered behaviors. We illustrate the architecture and its support for adaptation with examples from Guardian, an experimental agent for ICU monitoring

Using action-based hierarchies for real-time diagnosis

AbstractAn intelligent agent diagnoses perceived problems so that it can respond to them appropriately. Basically, the agent performs a series of tests whose results discriminate among competing hypotheses. Given a specific diagnosis, the agent performs the associated action. Using the traditional information-theoretic heuristic to order diagnostic tests in a decision tree, the agent can maximize the information obtained from each successive test and thereby minimize the average time (number of tests) required to complete a diagnosis and perform the appropriate action. However, in real-time domains, even the optimal sequence of tests cannot always be performed in the time available. Nonetheless, the agent must respond. For agents operating in real-time domains, we propose an alternative action-based approach in which: (a) each node in the diagnosis tree is augmented to include an ordered set of actions, each of which has positive utility for all of its children in the tree; and (b) the tree is structured to maximize the expected utility of the action available at each node. Upon perceiving a problem, the agent works its way through the tree, performing tests that discriminate among successively smaller subsets of potential faults. When a deadline occurs, the agent performs the best available action associated with the most specific node it has reached so far. Although the action-based approach does not minimize the time required to complete a specific diagnosis, it provides positive utility responses, with step-wise improvements in expected utility, throughout the diagnosis process. We present theoretical and empirical results contrasting the advantages and disadvantages of the information-theoretic and action-based approaches