The value of explanation in expert systems for auditing: An experimental investigation

Providing explanations for recommended actions is one of the most important capabilities of expert systems (ESs). The nature of the auditing domain suggests that ESs designed for audit applications should provide an explanation facility. There is little empirical evidence, however, that explanation facilities are, in fact, useful. This paper investigates the impact of explanations on changes in user beliefs toward ES-generated conclusions. Grounded on a theoretical model of argument, the study utilized a simulated expert system to provide three alternative types of ES explanations: trace; justification; and strategy. Ten expert and ten novice auditors performing an analytical review task evaluated the outputs of the system in a laboratory setting. The results indicate that explanation facilities can make a system's advice more agreeable and hence acceptable to auditors, and that justification is the most effective type of ES explanation to bring about changes in auditor attitudes toward the system. In addition, the results suggest that auditors at different levels of expertise may value each explanation type differently.     

An incremental solution for developing knowledge-based software: its application to an expert system for isokinetics interpretation

Many researchers working in the field of knowledge engineering (KE) are now concerned with identifying a model suitable for developing knowledge-based software and, especially, expert systems (ES). It is important to find a standard model that meets current needs and incorporates techniques successfully implemented in SE (object- or event-orientation, etc.), which are also of keen interest in KE.In this paper, we present an iterative and incremental solution for developing ES, according to which the system domain is derived naturally from the problem domain, thus surmounting the problems now involved in the transition from the conceptual model of the problem to the formal model of the system.As compared with conventional development models, this solution encompasses five main tools, which are:• Use cases with their respective actor interaction diagrams and activity flow diagrams in order to specify the expert system.• The concept dictionary, which allows knowledge engineers to define, bound and select the meaning of each concept used by experts.• The static conceptual model, which provides an overview (concepts and their relations) of the expert system (ES) modelled.• The control and process model, which models the knowledge and metaknowledge used by the expert to attain a goal.• An object-oriented metamodel, which outputs the formal knowledge model, providing an efficient, reusable, extendible and easy-to-implement ES architecture.To demonstrate the robustness of this solution, we describe how it was applied to an ES that interprets the graphs output by an isokinetics machine for a blind person. An isokinetics machine assesses the strength of the muscles of the leg, arm, etc.     

大坝安全监测专家系统知识库的研究

探讨了大坝安全监测专家系统的知识类型和知识的获取过程;分析了大坝安全监测专家系统的各种知识及其表示方法,即事实性、规则性和过程性知识及表示;在此基础上建立了一种简单的基于关系数据库的大坝安全监测专家系统知识库——包括事实库、规则库及知识的推理策略;最后把知识库应用到大坝安全监测专家系统中,为大坝安全监测工作提供保障。     

建造和丰富武器故障诊断专家系统的知识库

为了模拟现实专家的诊断过程,计算机专家系统中将知识分为原理知识和经验知识,对应的诊断为原理诊断和经验诊断。文中介绍了获取有关电子类设备故障诊断时所需原理知识和经验知识的基本方法,分析了原理诊断和经验诊断之间的关系,进而研究了专家系统的一种自学习新方法CBR,即把原理诊断的成功案例当作知识源,通过对案例进行学习,从而获取经验知识,完善经验知识库,在后续的诊断中可以大量节约诊断成本。这种方法较好地模拟了现实专家的诊断过程。同时对丰富类似的专家系统的经验知识库的知识,有参考价值。     

催化知识智能处理的初步研究

应用专家系统技术处理催化剂设计中大量非数值信息具有重要的实用价值。本文采用专家系统工具M.1,通过一个“离子浸渍吸附”子系统的原型构造实例,讨论催化知识构成和相应的处理方法。在此基础上,提出了结合传统的数值模拟技术构造催化专家系统的设想。     

Text planning with opportunistic control

This report describes the current state of our central research thrust in the area of natural language generation. We have already reported on our text-level theory of lexical selection in natural language generation ([59, 60]), on a unification-based syntactic processor for syntactic generation ([73]) and designed a relatively flexible blackboard-oriented architecture for integrating these and other types of processing activities in generation ([60]). We have implemented these ideas in our prototype generator, Diogenes — a DIstributed, Opportunistic GENEration System — and tested our lexical selection and syntactic generation modules in a comprehensive natural language processing project — the KBMT-89 machine translation system ([15]). At this stage we are developing a more comprehensive Diogenes system, concentrating on both the theoretical and the system-building aspects of a) formulating a more comprehensive theory of distributed natural language generation; b) extending current theories of text organization as they pertain to the task of planning natural language texts; c) improving and extending the knowledge representation and the actual body of background knowledge (both domain and discourse/pragmatic) required for comprehensive text planning; d) designing and implementing algorithms for dynamic realization of text structure and integrating them into the blackboard style of communication and control; e) designing and implementing control algorithms for distributed text planning and realization. In this document we describe our ideas concerning opportunistic control for a natural language generation planner and present a research and development plan for the Diogenes project.Many people have contributed to the design and development of the Diogenes generation system over the last four years, especially Eric Nyberg, Rita McCardell, Donna Gates, Christine Defrise, John Leavitt, Scott Huffman, Ed Kenschaft and Philip Werner. Eric Nyberg and Masaru Tomita have created genkit, which is used as the syntactic component of Diogenes. A short version of this article appeared in Proceedings of IJCAI-89, co-authored with Victor Lesser and Eric Nyberg. To all the above many thanks. The remaining errors are the responsibility of this author.     

The client-centred approach: expert system development

Abstract: This paper describes a project that is studying an expert system (ES) development method tailored to meet the requirements of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). It is posited that many such organisations cannot use ES technology because of its high entry price and because the available tools and methods were developed for and by large organisations. Within this context our development method encompasses the entire life cycle of an ES from initial conception to implementation through to maintenance and updating. The central premise is that the method should be 'client-centred', emphasising what the client can see, rather than being 'technology-centred', emphasising how the knowledge engineers work. Discussion includes how this methodology addresses many criticisms of current ES development methods, including rapid prototyping and KADS.     

小型水库溃坝预测专家系统设计与实现

设计并实现了一个基于棠例推理的小型水库溃坝预测专家系统.该系统采用框架表示溃坝案例,应用k-平均算法对溃坝案例进行聚类分析,并在此基础上,根据相似度预测目标小型水库的溃坝可能性.通过预测多个小型水库的溃坝可能性,该系统可以对这些小型水库的加固次序进行排序.     

Rule-based expert systems to support step-by-step guidance in algebraic problem solving: The case of the tutor PAT2Math

In order for an Intelligent Tutoring System (ITS) to correct students’ exercises, it must know how to solve the same type of problems that students do and the related knowledge components. It can, thereby, compare the desirable solution with the student’s answer. This task can be accomplished by an expert system. However, it has some drawbacks, such as an exponential complexity time, which impairs the desirable real-time response. In this paper we describe the expert system (ES) module of an Algebra ITS, called PAT2Math. The ES is responsible for correcting student steps and modeling student knowledge components during equations problem solving. Another important function of this module is to demonstrate to students how to solve a problem. In this paper, we focus mainly on the implementation of this module as a rule-based expert system. We also describe how we reduced the complexity of this module from O(n^d) to O(d), where n is the number of rules in the knowledge base, by implementing some meta-rules that aim at inferring the operations students applied in order to produce a step. We evaluated our approach through a user study with forty-three seventh grade students. The students who interacted with our tool showed statistically higher scores on equation solving tests, after solving algebra exercises with PAT2Math during an approximately two-hour session, than students who solved the same exercises using only paper and pencil.     

基于Rough Set的规则自动抽取设计方案

知识获取是专家系统的重要研究领域，而Rough Set理论以理论的独特之处成为这一领域的有效工具。文章针对一具体专家系统－OTCA－ES专家系统－在知识获取方面能力的不足，简要介绍其知识表示和知识获取的方法后，提出了一种基于Rough Set理论的规则自动抽取的设计方案。     

An intelligent decision support system for management of petroleum-contaminated sites

Groundwater and soil contamination resulted from LNAPLs (light nonaqueous phase liquids) spills and leakage in petroleum industry is currently one of the major environmental concerns in North America. Numerous site remediation technologies have been developed and implemented in the last two decades. They are classified as ex-situ and in-situ remediation techniques. One of the problems associated with ex-situ remediation is the cost of operation. In recent years, in-situ techniques have acquired popularity. However, the selection of the optimal techniques is difficult and insufficient expertise in the process may result in large inflation of expenses. This study presents an expert system (ES) for the management of petroleum contaminated sites in which a variety of artificial intelligence (AI) techniques were used to construct a support tool for site remediation decision-making. This paper presents the knowledge engineering processes of knowledge acquisition, conceptual design, and system implementation. The results from some case studies indicate that the expert system can generate cost-effective remediation alternatives to assist decision-makers.     

On the Systematic Analysis of Natural Language Requirements with CIRCE

This paper presents Circe, an environment for the analysis of natural language requirements. Circe is first presented in terms of its architecture, based on a transformational paradigm. Details are then given for the various transformation steps, including (i) a novel technique for parsing natural language requirements, and (ii) an expert system based on modular agents, embodying intensional knowledge about software systems in general. The result of all the transformations is a set of models for the requirements document, for the system described by the requirements, and for the requirements writing process. These models can be inspected, measured, and validated against a given set of criteria. Some of the features of the environment are shown by means of an example. Various stages of requirements analysis are covered, from initial sketches to pseudo-code and UML models.     

专家系统的软件工程建造方法

本文指出ＥＳ所固有的一些困难引起了ＥＳ的设计和维护上的困难，提出了ＥＳ的软件工程方法的观点、描述认知过程的知识说明和建造ＥＳ过程的ＰＬＷＦ模型，用来解决ＥＳ的设计阶段和维护阶段产生的问题。     

GIS支持的土壤适宜性评价专家系统的实现

采用地理信息系统为平台，建立了一个由数据库、知识库、推理机和人机界面所构成的专家系统．系统调用有关知识，通过推理模拟专家的评价过程．解决了传统的土壤适宜性评价方法所存在的计算复杂、定位困难等问题．试验性运用证明该系统稳定可靠．     

Bone Browser a decision-aid for the radiological diagnosis of bone tumors.

Bone Browser, a decision-aid for radiological diagnosis of bone tumors, was developed in cooperation with the Radiology Department of the Rambam Medical Center, Haifa. The system offers case specific advice from an expert system (ES), general information on the lesion area and allows for recording and retrieving cases. The ES utilizes both rule-based and probabilistic inferencing methodologies to arrive at a differential diagnosis (DD). The knowledge base was validated on 105 cases with known outcome. Clinical evaluation consisted of 59 new cases whose final diagnosis was not known to the evaluators. The correct diagnosis was included in the system's DD in 85% of the cases, which is comparable to the diagnostic accuracy of senior radiologists (88%). The system proved to be helpful to the expert, diagnosing cases missed by the radiologists and suggesting additional diagnoses not listed by the radiologists, raising their diagnostic capability to 91%.     

MATHA: Multiple sense amplifiers with transceiver for high performance improvement in NoC Architecture

Now-a-days there is much research attempts aim to find out low power consumption in the area of Network-on-chip (NoC), both in architectural as well as algorithmic approach. Even though a lot of Double Tail Sense Amplifiers (DTSA) are used in architectural approach, the conventional DTSA with transceiver exhibits a difficulty of consuming more energy than its indented design during heavy traffic condition. Multiple sense amplifiers with transceiver for high performance improvement in NoC Architecture (MATHA) is designed in this research to eliminate the difficulty. This MATHA is a combination of reconfigurable DTSA and transceiver. The reconfigurable DTSA consist of modified DTSA (M-DTSA), modified clock gating with DTSA (MCG-DTSA), Modified Dual Edge Triggered with DTSA (MDET-DTSA), Soft-DTSA (S-DTSA), graph theory based traffic estimator and multiplexer. Depending upon the traffic rate, one of the DTSA among the available four DTSA is selected and information transferred to the receiver. The proposed MATHA design is evaluated on TSMC 90 nm technology, showing 6.1 GB/s data rate and 0.32 W total link power.     

Development of an expert system for tackling the public''s perception to climate-change impacts on petroleum industry

Climate change could cause significant impacts on human activities, which is especially true for regions that are of high latitude such as Canada. Petroleum industry is a main economic sector in Canada's prairie, where a number of its production and processing practices are vulnerable to the fluctuations of climatic conditions. In this study, an expert system (ES) for integrated climate-change impact assessment within the prairie's petroleum sector was developed. Interactive relationships among climate change, natural-condition variations, industrial activities, environmental concerns and economic objectives, as well as the related policy implications, were comprehensively examined and incorporated within the ES. A series of questionnaire surveys were conducted for acquiring knowledge about the interrelationships between the climate change and the petroleum-related activities. Processes that were vulnerable to climate change were analyzed, followed by an integrated impact assessment. The results indicated that the impacts of increased temperature and natural hazards would be very significant on most of the petroleum-related processes. Also, the petroleum industry would be quite sensitive to changed precipitation patterns. The developed ES can be used for both acquiring knowledge of climate-change impacts on the petroleum industry and supporting formulation of the relevant adaptation policies.