A semantic modelling approach to knowledge based statistical software

The topic of this thesis is the development of knowledge based statistical software. The shortcomings of conventional statistical packages are discussed to illustrate the need to develop software which is able to exhibit a greater degree of statistical expertise, thereby reducing the misuse of statistical methods by those not well versed in the art of statistical analysis. Some of the issues involved in the development of knowledge based software are presented and a review is given of some of the systems that have been developed so far. The majority of these have moved away from conventional architectures by adopting what can be termed an expert systems approach. The thesis then proposes an approach which is based upon the concept of semantic modelling. By representing some of the semantic meaning of data, it is conceived that a system could examine a request to apply a statistical technique and check if the use of the chosen technique was semantically sound, i.e. will the results obtained be meaningful. Current systems, in contrast, can only perform what can be considered as syntactic checks. The prototype system that has been implemented to explore the feasibility of such an approach is presented, the system has been designed as an enhanced variant of a conventional style statistical package. This involved developing a semantic data model to represent some of the statistically relevant knowledge about data and identifying sets of requirements that should be met for the application of the statistical techniques to be valid. Those areas of statistics covered in the prototype are measures of association and tests of location.

An interdisciplinary approach to designing and evaluating a hybrid solar-biomass power plant

Purpose: Energy security is a major concern for India and many rural areas remain un-electrified. Thus, innovations in sustainable technologies to provide energy services are required. Biomass and solar energy in particular are resources that are widely available and underutilised in India. This paper aims to provide an overview of a methodology that was developed for designing and assessing the feasibility of a hybrid solar-biomass power plant in Gujarat. Design/methodology/approach: The methodology described is a combination of engineering and business management studies used to evaluate and design solar thermal collectors for specific applications and locations. For the scenario of a hybrid plant, the methodology involved: the analytical hierarchy process, for solar thermal technology selection; a cost-exergy approach, for design optimisation; quality function deployment, for designing and evaluating a novel collector - termed the elevation linear Fresnel reflector (ELFR); and case study simulations, for analysing alternative hybrid plant configurations. Findings: The paper recommended that for a hybrid plant in Gujarat, a linear Fresnel reflector of 14,000 m2 aperture is integrated with a 3 tonne per hour biomass boiler, generating 815 MWh per annum of electricity for nearby villages and 12,450 tonnes of ice per annum for local fisheries and food industries. However, at the expense of a 0.3 ¢/kWh increase in levelised energy costs, the ELFR can increase savings of biomass (100 t/a) and land (9 ha/a). Research limitations/implications: The research reviewed in this paper is primarily theoretical and further work will need to be undertaken to specify plant details such as piping layout, pump sizing and structure, and assess plant performance during real operational conditions. Originality/value: The paper considers the methodology adopted proved to be a powerful tool for integrating technology selection, optimisation, design and evaluation and promotes interdisciplinary methods for improving sustainable engineering design and energy management. © Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

One Approach to Knowledge Mapping for International Student Portal

* The work is partly supported by RFFI grant 08-07-00062-a

An Interdisciplinary Approach to the Management of Vocal Cord Dysfunction in an Elite Female Swimmer: a Case Study

Acute pulmonary disorders are commonplace within the athletic population, with exercise induced bronchoconstriction (EIB), and vocal cord dysfunction (VCD) common diagnoses. VCD is a condition that causes the adduction of the vocal folds during inhalation, causing obstruction at the larynx and thereby a severely impaired sporting performance. VCD can be brought on by laryngeal irritants, emotional and psychological stress and asthma. The gold standard of treatment for VCD centres on an interdisciplinary approach from specialists that often include a respiratory consultant, speech and language therapist (SLT) and a psychologist. The present case study details the interdisciplinary approach to the treatment of an elite female swimmer with VCD with an intervention programme that lasted nine weeks, instigated by a local general practitioner (G.P.) who chose to engage a Sport Psychology Consultant (SPC) due to the sport-specific nature of the psychological stress experienced by the individual. The steps involved in the design of the sport psychology interventions are outlined and the relationship of those interventions to the work of the other specialists is discussed. The 9 week intervention programme was aimed at reducing perfectionist tendencies and competitive state anxiety using a combination of cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), goal-setting and imagery. Overall, the treatment programme was deemed a success as perfectionism and competitive state anxiety levels reduced over time along with the frequency of VCD occurrence. This case study demonstrates the breadth of roles that can be undertaken by a SPC and raises awareness of a complex respiratory disorder that is not yet fully understood.

A multidisciplinary approach to the functional and esthetic rehabilitation of amelogenesis imperfecta and open bite deformity: a case report

The treatment of amelogenesis imperfecta (AI) with an anterior open bite (AOB) is a challenge for the clinician and often requires a multidisciplinary team of specialists. Most often, patients suffering from these conditions are young and a good functional and esthetic long-term result must be aspired. This clinical report illustrates the orthodontic, maxillofacial, restorative, and prosthodontic rehabilitation of a 20-year-old woman with a hypoplastic form of AI and an AOB malocclusion, having received treatment for the last 6 years. It included adhesive resin composite restorations, orthodontical and maxillofacial surgery with a one-piece Le Fort I osteotomy, and a genioplasty. Subsequent prosthodontic therapy consisted of 28 all-ceramic crowns whereby a solid interdigitation, a canine guidance, and consistent and regular contacts between tooth crowns could be achieved to assure a good functional and esthetic oral situation. The tooth preparation techniques guaranteed minimally invasive treatment. The patient was affected very positively. CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE: This article describes an interdisciplinary approach to the successful treatment of a patient with a hypoplastic form of amelogenesis imperfecta over a period of 6 years. It starts with a discussion of the conservative steps taken during adolescence and concludes with the final prosthetic rehabilitation with all-ceramic crowns after reaching adulthood.

A Case Based approach to assess Waiting Time Prediction at an Intensive Care Unity

Waiting time at an intensive care unity stands for a key feature in the assessment of healthcare quality. Nevertheless, its estimation is a difficult task, not only due to the different factors with intricate relations among them, but also with respect to the available data, which may be incomplete, self-contradictory or even unknown. However, its prediction not only improves the patients’ satisfaction but also enhance the quality of the healthcare being provided. To fulfill this goal, this work aims at the development of a decision support system that allows one to predict how long a patient should remain at an emergency unit, having into consideration all the remarks that were just stated above. It is built on top of a Logic Programming approach to knowledge representation and reasoning, complemented with a Case Base approach to computing.

A Case-base Approach to Workforces’ Satisfaction Assessment

It is well known that human resources play a valuable role in a sustainable organizational development. Indeed, this work will focus on the development of a decision support system to assess workers’ satisfaction based on factors related to human resources management practices. The framework is built on top of a Logic Programming approach to Knowledge Representation and Reasoning, complemented with a Case Based approach to computing. The proposed solution is unique in itself, once it caters for the explicit treatment of incomplete, unknown, or even self-contradictory information, either in terms of a qualitative or quantitative setting. Furthermore, clustering methods based on similarity analysis among cases were used to distinguish and aggregate collections of historical data or knowledge in order to reduce the search space, therefore enhancing the cases retrieval and the overall computational process.

Age Prediction through Pelvis X-Ray Images - A Case Based approach to Problem Solving

It is well known that the dimensions of the pelvic bones depend on the gender and vary with the age of the individual. Indeed, and as a matter of fact, this work will focus on the development of an intelligent decision support system to predict individual’s age based on pelvis’ dimensions criteria. On the one hand, some basic image processing technics were applied in order to extract the relevant features from pelvic X-rays. On the other hand, the computational framework presented here was built on top of a Logic Programming approach to knowledge representation and reasoning, that caters for the handling of incomplete, unknown, or even self-contradictory information, complemented with a Case Base approach to computing.

An Artificial Intelligence Approach to Individuals' Age Assessment

A link between patterns of pelvic growth and human life history is supported by the finding that, cross-culturally, variation in maturation rates of female pelvis are correlated with variation in ages of menarche and first reproduction, i.e., it is well known that the human dimensions of the pelvic bones depend on the gender and vary with the age. Indeed, one feature in which humans appear to be unique is the prolonged growth of the pelvis after the age of sexual maturity. Both the total superoinferior length and mediolateral breadth of the pelvis continues to grow markedly after puberty, and do not reach adult proportions until the late teens years. This continuation of growth is accomplished by relatively late fusion of the separate centers of ossification that form the bones of the pelvis. Hence, in this work we will focus on the development of an intelligent decision support system to predict individual’s age based on a pelvis' dimensions criteria. Some basic image processing techniques were applied in order to extract the relevant features from pelvic X-rays, being the computational framework built on top of a Logic Programming approach to Knowledge Representation and Reasoning that caters for the handling of incomplete, unknown, or even self-contradictory information, complemented with a Case Base approach to computing.

An Integrated Soft Computing Approach to Hughes Syndrome Risk Assessment

The AntiPhospholipid Syndrome (APS) is an acquired autoimmune disorder induced by high levels of antiphospholipid antibodies that cause arterial and veins thrombosis, as well as pregnancy-related complications and morbidity, as clinical manifestations. This autoimmune hypercoagulable state, usually known as Hughes syndrome, has severe consequences for the patients, being one of the main causes of thrombotic disorders and death. Therefore, it is required to be preventive; being aware of how probable is to have that kind of syndrome. Despite the updated of antiphospholipid syndrome classification, the diagnosis remains difficult to establish. Additional research on clinically relevant antibodies and standardization of their quantification are required in order to improve the antiphospholipid syndrome risk assessment. Thus, this work will focus on the development of a diagnosis decision support system in terms of a formal agenda built on a Logic Programming approach to knowledge representation and reasoning, complemented with a computational framework based on Artificial Neural Networks. The proposed model allows for improving the diagnosis, classifying properly the patients that really presented this pathology (sensitivity higher than 85%), as well as classifying the absence of APS (specificity close to 95%).

Corpo: forma, movimento e equilíbrio : um olhar interdisciplinar sobre o corpo, a mente e o comportamento humano

For centuries have studied the man in a segmented manner, which today, even with the emergence of new forms of research, holistic, we see that the influence of centuries of construction of scientific knowledge has taken root in such a way that even now with new understandings about matter and its structure pointing to systemic relations, studies are still largely dichotomized by dividing body, mind and environment. This paper is a literature review on several sources of knowledge, seeking an interdisciplinary way in physics, chemistry, biology, psychology and physical education, relate the body, mind and their interactions with the environment, building a more current concept of body. The studies showed that the physical, cognitive, emotional, social and environmental aspects involve an interaction continues between human been with the world, which changes shapes, balances and transactions, and thus human behavior. So when we speak of the body should relate all this that makes us conscious organisms in constant internal and external dynamic with the universe

Manuel Bandeira entre a química e libertinagem: uma proposta interdisciplinar

Este trabalho apresenta uma pesquisa que buscou compreender qual o conceito que alunos de uma turma de 3º ano do Ensino Média tinham a cerca de Interdisciplinaridade. A seguir analisou-se a avaliação e impacto que uma aula que discutiu conceitos de química orgânica visando melhor compreensão de poemas de Manuel Bandeira. Os dados indicam que os alunos entender a interdisciplinaridade como associação entre disciplinas, porém atribuem sua aplicação a disciplinas de mesma grande área. Ainda, a aula ministrada conseguiu proporcionar uma diferente visão de leitura aos alunos, os quais a consideraram como diferente do usual e interessante

Implicações de um programa de formação continuada na formação e atuação de professores de educação física atuantes no ciclo I

This work focused on research a course of continuing education for teachers of Physical Education, offered in a city of São Paulo in 2013. Adopting as a benchmark analysis of models of continuing education in teaching, investigative question that guided this study was: what are the implications of this formative process in the formation and performance of the participating teachers?. With this guiding question, four were the objectives we seek to respond to this analysis: first identify the profile of teachers as well as the participation and involvement of the same course developed; 2 map and analyze the manifestations of teachers throughout the course; 3 reflect on the role of teachers in relation to approaches and/or distances with the common physical education curriculum proposed by the municipality; 4 identify and analyze the reflections on the course conducted. The methodological approach was qualitative and eighteen participants were teachers of a school system in a city of São Paulo, active in cycle I (1 to 5 years) of primary school. Data collection was carried out in two phases, with the participants in the first stage seventeen teachers and three teachers in the second stage that in addition to acting in the cycle I also actively participated in the course. Data were obtained in phase one using a diagnostic interview recorded on voice recorder and transcripts of observations and recorded in video and voice recorder from sixteen meetings of the continuing education course conducted in 2013 and phase two included the observation of classes teachers in the 2nd half of 2013, ending with a final interview. Demonstrations of physical education teachers in the course, as well as the situations observed and interviews indicated that on the profile of teachers are in the age range 30-58 years to serve at least five years in schools and most (10) does not work elsewhere. Another observation is that most of the participating teachers when thes...

Guerra e o desenvolvimento científico: uma superaula interdisciplinar e investigativa construída em torno de um experimento central

This research presents the description of the assembly, development and execution of an experiment and of an interdisciplinary and student research activity built by some undergraduates from Biological Sciences, Physics, Mathematics and Chemistry PIBID subprojects of the Faculty of Science, FC - UNESP, Bauru/SP Campus. These subprojects are part of a single interdisciplinary group, which has as its main activity the Superclass, which consists of an intervention of the PIBID members during the class schedule, with an interdisciplinary and student research didactic sequence, applied by four groups of ten members, in two local State Schools. The experiment treated in this assignment was a miniature cannon (minicannon), and it was used in a Superclass that had the War and Science Development as its theme, wherein the knowledge of all areas were built from the analysis of the multiple variables involved on the cannon shots. These variables were surveyed with the students through the experiment research, during the Superclass, being focused on three of them: the shot and the explosives; the trajectory; and the target. The experiment was extremely successful, because it could instigate the students, who were interested, questioning and debaters for several times during the class. The minicannon made possible the interdisciplinary and the student research work among the four areas of science involved. Despite it has been a laborious experiment in its construction, it has proven to be innovative, and its use has transformed the students‟ ingenuous curiosity into epistemological curiosity, a key factor in the construction of scientific knowledge, wherein the dialogue established in the Superclass explored this new curiosity