Involving users in expert system development

The ultimate criterion of success for interactive expert systems is that they will be used, and used to effect, by individuals other than the system developers. A key ingredient of success in most systems is involving users in the specification and development of systems as they are being built. However, until recently, system designers have paid little attention to ascertaining user needs and to developing systems with corresponding functionality and appropriate interfaces to match those requirements. Although the situation is beginning to change, many developers do not know how to go about involving users, or else tackle the problem in an inadequate way. This paper discusses the need for user involvement and considers why many developers are still not involving users in an optimal way. It looks at the different ways in which users can be involved in the development process and describes how to select appropriate techniques and methods for studying users. Finally, it discusses some of the problems inherent in involving users in expert system development, and recommends an approach which incorporates both ethnographic analysis and formal user testing.

Translational research and therapeutic applications of neural crest-derived stem cells in regenerative periodontology

Regeneration of periodontal tissues aims to utilize tissue engineering techniques to restore lost periodontal tissues including the cementum, periodontal ligament and alveolar bone. Regenerative dentistry and its special field regenerative periodontology represent relatively new and emerging branches of translational stem cell biology and regenerative medicine focusing on replacing and regenerating dental tissues to restore or re-establish their normal function lost during degenerative diseases or acute lesions. The regeneration itself can be achieved through transplantation of autologous or allogenic stem cells, or by improving the tissue self-repair mechanisms (e.g. by application of growth factors). In addition, a combination of stem cells or stem cell-containing tissue with bone implants can be used to improve tissue integration and the clinical outcome. As the oral cavity represents a complex system consisting of teeth, bone, soft tissues and sensory nerves, regenerative periodontology relies on the use of stem cells with relatively high developmental potential. Notably, the potential use of pluripotent stem cell types such as human embryonic stem cells or induced pluripotent stem cells is still aggravated by ethical and practical problems. Thus, other cellular sources such as those readily available in the postnatal craniofacial area and particularly in oral structures offer a much better and realistic alternative as cellular regenerative sources. In this review, we summarize current knowledge on the oral neural crest-derived stem cell populations (oNCSCs) and discuss their potential in regenerative periodontology.

Prototype Generation from Ontology Charts

Semantic Analysis is a business analysis method designed to capture system requirements. While these requirements may be represented as text, the method also advocates the use of Ontology Charts to formally denote the system's required roles, relationships and forms of communication. Following model driven engineering techniques, Ontology Charts can be transformed to temporal Database schemas, class diagrams and component diagrams, which can then be used to produce software systems. A nice property of these transformations is that resulting system design models lend themselves to complicated extensions that do not require changes to the design models. For example, resulting databases can be extended with new types of data without the need to modify the database schema of the legacy system. Semantic Analysis is not widely used in software engineering, so there is a lack of experts in the field and no design patterns are available. This make it difficult for the analysts to pass organizational knowledge to the engineers. This study describes an implementation that is readily usable by engineers, which includes an automated technique that can produce a prototype from an Ontology Chart. The use of such tools should enable developers to make use of Semantic Analysis with minimal expertise of ontologies and MDA.

Automating the product derivation process of multi-agent systems product lines

Agent-oriented software engineering and software product lines are two promising software engineering techniques. Recent research work has been exploring their integration, namely multi-agent systems product lines (MAS-PLs), to promote reuse and variability management in the context of complex software systems. However, current product derivation approaches do not provide specific mechanisms to deal with MAS-PLs. This is essential because they typically encompass several concerns (e.g., trust, coordination, transaction, state persistence) that are constructed on the basis of heterogeneous technologies (e.g., object-oriented frameworks and platforms). In this paper, we propose the use of multi-level models to support the configuration knowledge specification and automatic product derivation of MAS-PLs. Our approach provides an agent-specific architecture model that uses abstractions and instantiation rules that are relevant to this application domain. In order to evaluate the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed approach, we have implemented it as an extension of an existing product derivation tool, called GenArch. The approach has also been evaluated through the automatic instantiation of two MAS-PLs, demonstrating its potential and benefits to product derivation and configuration knowledge specification.

Metodologia para aplicação de reuso e reengenharia nos softwares de aquisição e redução de dados de um túnel de vento

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Bioengenharia no controle de processos erosivos de áreas de hidrelétricas – o caso da PCH Costa Rica (MS)

The crescent increasing demand of the electric power in Brazil has stimulated the implantation of Small Central Hydroelectric Power (SCHP) in several regions of the country. However, the silting up of the reservoirs is one of the main problems faced by hydroelectric power plants and SCHP. In this context, this research aimed evaluate the phenomenology and propose the enforcement of appropriate bioengineering techniques to control the intense erosive process of the hydrographical basin of the “Alto Rio Sucuriú,” that cause silting up of the reservoirs of the SCHP Costa Rica, located in the municipal district of Costa Rica (MS). In order to identify the phenomenology of the main falling in of this basin, a diagnosis of the conditions of the physical environment of the region (climate, geology, pedology, hydrology, and use of the ground) was realized. A surveying was also realized to specify the geometric feature of the falling in using the Total Station of the Ruide brand, series RTS 860R and the geodetic GPS of the Ashtech brand and the data obtained was used on the preparation of the Digital Elevation Model (DEM) of the falling in. Based on this diagnosis an official register of the falling in was done with identification of the different types of present erosion. Due to the advanced erosive stage of the falling in researched, the use of bioengineering techniques could be the best solution considering that the traditional engineering techniques make use of heavy material like concrete, iron and large machines that besides causing higher impact to the natural and esthetic aspects of the environment also require a higher investment of capital. This research establish a great cooperation to the knowledge of the erosive process and of the rehabilitation of the degraded areas with application of bioengineering techniques not only hydrographical basin of “Alto Rio Sucuriú” but also to other basins that show similar situation

Knowledge management in intelligent tutoring systems

In the last years, Intelligent Tutoring Systems have been a very successful way for improving learning experience. Many issues must be addressed until this technology can be defined mature. One of the main problems within the Intelligent Tutoring Systems is the process of contents authoring: knowledge acquisition and manipulation processes are difficult tasks because they require a specialised skills on computer programming and knowledge engineering. In this thesis we discuss a general framework for knowledge management in an Intelligent Tutoring System and propose a mechanism based on first order data mining to partially automate the process of knowledge acquisition that have to be used in the ITS during the tutoring process. Such a mechanism can be applied in Constraint Based Tutor and in the Pseudo-Cognitive Tutor. We design and implement a part of the proposed architecture, mainly the module of knowledge acquisition from examples based on first order data mining. We then show that the algorithm can be applied at least two different domains: first order algebra equation and some topics of C programming language. Finally we discuss the limitation of current approach and the possible improvements of the whole framework.

Engineering an Ontology for Autonomous Systems - The OASys Ontology

This paper describes the development of an ontology for autonomous systems, as the initial stage of a research programe on autonomous systems’ engineering within a model-based control approach. The ontology aims at providing a unified conceptual framework for the autonomous systems’ stakeholders, from developers to software engineers. The modular ontology contains both generic and domain-specific concepts for autonomous systems description and engineering. The ontology serves as the basis in a methodology to obtain the autonomous system’s conceptual models. The objective is to obtain and to use these models as main input for the autonomous system’s model-based control system.

Essentials in Ontology Engineering: Methodologies, Languages, and Tools

In the beginning of the 90s, ontology development was similar to an art: ontology developers did not have clear guidelines on how to build ontologies but only some design criteria to be followed. Work on principles, methods and methodologies, together with supporting technologies and languages, made ontology development become an engineering discipline, the so-called Ontology Engineering. Ontology Engineering refers to the set of activities that concern the ontology development process and the ontology life cycle, the methods and methodologies for building ontologies, and the tool suites and languages that support them. Thanks to the work done in the Ontology Engineering field, the development of ontologies within and between teams has increased and improved, as well as the possibility of reusing ontologies in other developments and in final applications. Currently, ontologies are widely used in (a) Knowledge Engineering, Artificial Intelligence and Computer Science, (b) applications related to knowledge management, natural language processing, e-commerce, intelligent information integration, information retrieval, database design and integration, bio-informatics, education, and (c) the Semantic Web, the Semantic Grid, and the Linked Data initiative. In this paper, we provide an overview of Ontology Engineering, mentioning the most outstanding and used methodologies, languages, and tools for building ontologies. In addition, we include some words on how all these elements can be used in the Linked Data initiative.

An Intelligent Assistant for Public Transport Management

This paper describes the architecture of a computer system conceived as an intelligent assistant for public transport management. The goal of the system is to help operators of a control center in making strategic decisions about how to solve problems of a fleet of buses in an urban network. The system uses artificial intelligence techniques to simulate the decision processes. In particular, a complex knowledge model has been designed by using advanced knowledge engineering methods that integrates three main tasks: diagnosis, prediction and planning. Finally, the paper describes two particular applications developed following this architecture for the cities of Torino (Italy) and Vitoria (Spain).

A Language to Formalize and to Operationalize Problem-solving Strategies of Structured Knowledge Models

This paper describes a proposal of a language called Link which has been designed to formalize and operationalize problem solving strategies. This language is used within a software environment called KSM (Knowledge Structure Manager) which helps developers in formulating and operationalizing structured knowledge models. The paper presents both its syntax and dynamics, and gives examples of well-known problem-solving strategies of reasoning formulated using this language.

Reliability and quality in the area of statistical thinking in Engineering

There is remarkable growing concern about the quality control at the time, which has led to the search for methods capable of addressing effectively the reliability analysis as part of the Statistic. Managers, researchers and Engineers must understand that 'statistical thinking' is not just a set of statistical tools. They should start considering 'statistical thinking' from a 'system', which means, developing systems that meet specific statistical tools and other methodologies for an activity. The aim of this article is to encourage them (engineers, researchers and managers) to develop a new way of thinking.