A Framework of Fuzzy Diagnosis

Fault diagnosis has become an important component in intelligent systems, such as intelligent control systems and intelligent eLearning systems. Reiter's diagnosis theory, described by first-order sentences, has been attracting much attention in this field. However, descriptions and observations of most real-world situations are related to fuzziness because of the incompleteness and the uncertainty of knowledge, e. g., the fault diagnosis of student behaviors in the eLearning processes. In this paper, an extension of Reiter's consistency-based diagnosis methodology, Fuzzy Diagnosis, has been proposed, which is able to deal with incomplete or fuzzy knowledge. A number of important properties of the Fuzzy diagnoses schemes have also been established. The computing of fuzzy diagnoses is mapped to solving a system of inequalities. Some special cases, abstracted from real-world situations, have been discussed. In particular, the fuzzy diagnosis problem, in which fuzzy observations are represented by clause-style fuzzy theories, has been presented and its solving method has also been given. A student fault diagnostic problem abstracted from a simplified real-world eLearning case is described to demonstrate the application of our diagnostic framework.

Managing ontologies: A comparative study of ontology servers

An ontology is increasingly becoming an essential tool for solving problems in many research areas. The ontology is a complex information object. It can contain millions of concepts in complex relationships. When we want to manage complex information objects, we generally turn to information systems technology. An information system intended to manage ontology is called an ontology server. The ontology server technology is at the time of writing quite immature. Therefore, this paper reviews and compares the main ontology servers that have been reported in the literatures. As a result, we point out several research questions related to server technology

Spatial indexing for scalability in FCA

The paper provides evidence that spatial indexing structures offer faster resolution of Formal Concept Analysis queries than B-Tree/Hash methods. We show that many Formal Concept Analysis operations, computing the contingent and extent sizes as well as listing the matching objects, enjoy improved performance with the use of spatial indexing structures such as the RD-Tree. Speed improvements can vary up to eighty times faster depending on the data and query. The motivation for our study is the application of Formal Concept Analysis to Semantic File Systems. In such applications millions of formal objects must be dealt with. It has been found that spatial indexing also provides an effective indexing technique for more general purpose applications requiring scalability in Formal Concept Analysis systems. The coverage and benchmarking are presented with general applications in mind.

Quantitative assessment of aortic sclerosis using ultrasonic backscatter

Background. The development of therapeutic interventions to prevent progressive valve damage is more likely to limit the progression of structural damage to the aortic valve with normal function (aortic sclerosis [ASC]) than clinically apparent aortic stenosis. Currently, the ability to appreciate the progression of ASC is compromised by the subjective and qualitative evaluation of sclerosis severity. Methods: We sought to reveal whether the intensity of ultrasonic backscatter could be used to quantify sclerosis severity in 26 patients with ASC and 23 healthy young adults. images of the aortic valve were obtained in the parasternal long-axis view and saved in raw data format. Six square-shaped 11 X 11 pixel regions of interest were placed on the anterior and posterior leaflets, and calibrated backscatter values were obtained by subtracting the regions of interest in the blood pool from the averaged backscatter values obtained from the leaflets. Results. Mean ultrasonic backscatter values for sclerotic valves exceeded the results in normal valve tissue (16.3 +/- 4.4 dB vs 9.8 +/- 3.3 dB, P < .0001). Backscatter values were greater (22.0 +/- 3.5 dB) in a group of 6 patients with aortic stenosis. Within the sclerosis group, the magnitude of backscatter was directly correlated (P < .05) with a subjective sclerosis score, and with transvalvular pressure gradient. mean reproducibility was 2.4 +/- 1.8 dB (SD) between observers, and 2.3 +/- 1.7 dB (SD) between examinations. Conclusion: Measurement of backscatter from the valve leaflets of patients with ASC may be a feasible means of following the progression and treatment response of aortic sclerosis.

Estimating Income Inequality in China Using Grouped Data and the Generalized Beta Distribution

There are two main types of data sources of income distributions in China: household survey data and grouped data. Household survey data are typically available for isolated years and individual provinces. In comparison, aggregate or grouped data are typically available more frequently and usually have national coverage. In principle, grouped data allow investigation of the change of inequality over longer, continuous periods of time, and the identification of patterns of inequality across broader regions. Nevertheless, a major limitation of grouped data is that only mean (average) income and income shares of quintile or decile groups of the population are reported. Directly using grouped data reported in this format is equivalent to assuming that all individuals in a quintile or decile group have the same income. This potentially distorts the estimate of inequality within each region. The aim of this paper is to apply an improved econometric method designed to use grouped data to study income inequality in China. A generalized beta distribution is employed to model income inequality in China at various levels and periods of time. The generalized beta distribution is more general and flexible than the lognormal distribution that has been used in past research, and also relaxes the assumption of a uniform distribution of income within quintile and decile groups of populations. The paper studies the nature and extent of inequality in rural and urban China over the period 1978 to 2002. Income inequality in the whole of China is then modeled using a mixture of province-specific distributions. The estimated results are used to study the trends in national inequality, and to discuss the empirical findings in the light of economic reforms, regional policies, and globalization of the Chinese economy.

Clinical evaluation of the WOMAC 3.0 OA Index in numeric rating scale format using a computerized touch screen version

Background: The Western Ontario and McMaster Universities (WOMAC) Osteoarthritis Index is a previously described self-administered questionnaire covering three domains: pain, stiffness and function. It has been validated in patients with osteoarthritis (OA) of the hip or knee in a paper-based format. Aim: To validate the WOMAC 3.0 using a numerical rating scale in a computerized touch screen format allowing immediate evaluation of the questionnaire. In the computed version cartoons, written and audio instruments were included in order facilitate application. Methods: Fifty patients, demographically balanced, with radiographically proven primary hip or knee OA completed the classical paper and the new computerized WOMAC version. Subjects were randomized either to paper format or computerized format first to balance possible order effects, Results: The intra-class correlation coefficients for pain, stiffness and function values were 0.915, 0.745 and 0.940, respectively. The Spearman correlation coefficients for pain, stiffness and function were 0.88, 0.77 and 0.87, respectively. Conclusion: These data indicate that the computerized WOMAC OA index 3.0 is comparable to the paper WOMAC in all three dimensions. The computerized version would allow physicians to get an immediate result and if present a direct comparison with a previous exam. (C) 2002 OsteoArthritis Research Society International. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Talkback radio: Some notes on format, politics and influence

This paper presents early results from an ARC-funded research project on the content, audience and influence of Australian talkback radio. Drawing upon the analysis of data from a survey of three talkback programs — John Laws and Neil Mitchell from the commercial sector and Australia Talks Back from the ABC — the paper focuses upon two aspects: the topics canvassed and the participation of the callers. Although very preliminary, the results of this survey narrow down the kinds of questions we need to ask as we move towards more sophisticated analysis of this media format.

Twin study of adolescent genetic susceptibility to mosquito bites using ordinal and comparative rating data

Ordinal and comparative rating measures of mosquito attraction and mosquito bite frequency and symptoms were administered in a self-report questionnaire format to a sample of 197 monozygotic and 326 dizygotic Australian adolescent twin pairs at age 12 between 1992 and 1999, in order to investigate the environmental and possibly genetic determinants of variation between individuals. Repeat measures were obtained from the twin pairs at age 14. Ordinal variable measures, although providing some support for genetic effects on mosquito susceptibility, were affected by low repeatability. However, analysis of a comparative rating variable compared with your twin, who is bitten by mosquitoes more often? indicated a strong genetic influence on frequency of being bitten by mosquitoes, with no significant differences observed between males and females. Comparative rating questionnaire items are a potentially valuable tool for complementing and improving the results obtained from more conventional absolute measures. (C) 2000 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

Migrating eprints.org data to a Fez repository

This document records the process of migrating eprints.org data to a Fez repository. Fez is a Web-based digital repository and workflow management system based on Fedora (http://www.fedora.info/). At the time of migration, the University of Queensland Library was using EPrints 2.2.1 [pepper] for its ePrintsUQ repository. Once we began to develop Fez, we did not upgrade to later versions of eprints.org software since we knew we would be migrating data from ePrintsUQ to the Fez-based UQ eSpace. Since this document records our experiences of migration from an earlier version of eprints.org, anyone seeking to migrate eprints.org data into a Fez repository might encounter some small differences. Moving UQ publication data from an eprints.org repository into a Fez repository (hereafter called UQ eSpace (http://espace.uq.edu.au/) was part of a plan to integrate metadata (and, in some cases, full texts) about all UQ research outputs, including theses, images, multimedia and datasets, in a single repository. This tied in with the plan to identify and capture the research output of a single institution, the main task of the eScholarshipUQ testbed for the Australian Partnership for Sustainable Repositories project (http://www.apsr.edu.au/). The migration could not occur at UQ until the functionality in Fez was at least equal to that of the existing ePrintsUQ repository. Accordingly, as Fez development occurred throughout 2006, a list of eprints.org functionality not currently supported in Fez was created so that programming of such development could be planned for and implemented.

A simple data logger for student-designed rocket experiments.

The final-year project for Mechanical & Space Engineering students at UQ often involves the design and flight testing of an experiment. This report describes the design and use of a simple data logger that should be suitable for collecting data from the students' flight experiments. The exercise here was taken as far as the construction of a prototype device that is suitable for ground-based testing, say, the static firing of a hybrid rocket motor.

Equational Reasoning as a Tool for Data Analysis

A combination of deductive reasoning, clustering, and inductive learning is given as an example of a hybrid system for exploratory data analysis. Visualization is replaced by a dialogue with the data.