Computer Sciences and Data Systems, volume 1

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1987-01-01

Topics addressed include: software engineering; university grants; institutes; concurrent processing; sparse distributed memory; distributed operating systems; intelligent data management processes; expert system for image analysis; fault tolerant software; and architecture research.

Research on an expert system for database operation of simulation-emulation math models. Volume 1, Phase 1: Results

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kawamura, K.; Beale, G. O.; Schaffer, J. D.; Hsieh, B. J.; Padalkar, S.; Rodriguez-Moscoso, J. J.

1985-01-01

The results of the first phase of Research on an Expert System for Database Operation of Simulation/Emulation Math Models, is described. Techniques from artificial intelligence (AI) were to bear on task domains of interest to NASA Marshall Space Flight Center. One such domain is simulation of spacecraft attitude control systems. Two related software systems were developed to and delivered to NASA. One was a generic simulation model for spacecraft attitude control, written in FORTRAN. The second was an expert system which understands the usage of a class of spacecraft attitude control simulation software and can assist the user in running the software. This NASA Expert Simulation System (NESS), written in LISP, contains general knowledge about digital simulation, specific knowledge about the simulation software, and self knowledge.

FOREX - an expert system for managing even-aged upland oak forests on steep terrain

Treesearch

Chris B. LeDoux; B. Gopalakrishnan; K. Lankalapalli

1995-01-01

An expert system, FOREX, was developed to access the data from the database management provided by MANAGE. For a specific site index, the user of FOREX can obtain information on present net worth, optimal thinning entry timing, optimal stand rotation age, diameter at breast height, volume by grade and value of the trees harvested, and based on the cable yarder used,...

Automated information retrieval using CLIPS

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Raines, Rodney Doyle, III; Beug, James Lewis

1991-01-01

Expert systems have considerable potential to assist computer users in managing the large volume of information available to them. One possible use of an expert system is to model the information retrieval interests of a human user and then make recommendations to the user as to articles of interest. At Cal Poly, a prototype expert system written in the C Language Integrated Production System (CLIPS) serves as an Automated Information Retrieval System (AIRS). AIRS monitors a user's reading preferences, develops a profile of the user, and then evaluates items returned from the information base. When prompted by the user, AIRS returns a list of items of interest to the user. In order to minimize the impact on system resources, AIRS is designed to run in the background during periods of light system use.

Technology of machine tools. Volume 2. Machine tool systems management and utilization

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Thomson, A.R.

1980-10-01

The Machine Tool Task Force (MTTF) was formed to characterize the state of the art of machine tool technology and to identify promising future directions of this technology. This volume is one of a five-volume series that presents the MTTF findings; reports on various areas of the technology were contributed by experts in those areas.

SYSTEM THEORY: INTER-UNIVERSITY ELECTRONICS SERIES, VOLUME VIII,

DTIC Science & Technology

The book contains contributions in the area of general system theory , linear systems, nonlinear systems, stochastic and learning systems by...nationally and internationally known experts. It presents the most basic and important areas of system theory for the use and familiarization of mathematically-oriented nonspecialists. (Author)

An Ada Based Expert System for the Ada Version of SAtool II. Volume 1 and 2

DTIC Science & Technology

1991-06-06

Integrated Computer-Aided Manufacturing (ICAM) (20). In fact, IDEF 0 stands for ICAM Definition Method Zero . IDEF0 defines a subset of SA that omits...reasoning that has been programmed). An expert’s knowledge is specific to one problem domain as opposed to knowledge about general problem-solving...techniques. General problem domains are medicine, finance, science or engineering and so forth in which an expert can solve specific problems very well

Research in space commercialization, technology transfer, and communications, volume 2

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Dunn, D. A.; Agnew, C. E.

1983-01-01

Spectrum management, models for evaluating communication systems, the communications regulatory environment, expert prediction and consensus, remote sensing, and manned space operations research are discussed.

Applications of artificial intelligence 1993: Knowledge-based systems in aerospace and industry; Proceedings of the Meeting, Orlando, FL, Apr. 13-15, 1993

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Fayyad, Usama M. (Editor); Uthurusamy, Ramasamy (Editor)

1993-01-01

The present volume on applications of artificial intelligence with regard to knowledge-based systems in aerospace and industry discusses machine learning and clustering, expert systems and optimization techniques, monitoring and diagnosis, and automated design and expert systems. Attention is given to the integration of AI reasoning systems and hardware description languages, care-based reasoning, knowledge, retrieval, and training systems, and scheduling and planning. Topics addressed include the preprocessing of remotely sensed data for efficient analysis and classification, autonomous agents as air combat simulation adversaries, intelligent data presentation for real-time spacecraft monitoring, and an integrated reasoner for diagnosis in satellite control. Also discussed are a knowledge-based system for the design of heat exchangers, reuse of design information for model-based diagnosis, automatic compilation of expert systems, and a case-based approach to handling aircraft malfunctions.

Second CLIPS Conference Proceedings, volume 2

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Giarratano, Joseph (Editor); Culbert, Christopher J. (Editor)

1991-01-01

Papers presented at the 2nd C Language Integrated Production System (CLIPS) Conference held at the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center (JSC) on 23-25 September 1991 are documented in these proceedings. CLIPS is an expert system tool developed by the Software Technology Branch at NASA JSC and is used at over 4000 sites by government, industry, and business. During the three days of the conference, over 40 papers were presented by experts from NASA, Department of Defense, other government agencies, universities, and industry.

AAAIC '88 - Aerospace Applications of Artificial Intelligence; Proceedings of the Fourth Annual Conference, Dayton, OH, Oct. 25-27, 1988. Volumes 1 2

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Johnson, J.R.; Netrologic, Inc., San Diego, CA)

1988-01-01

Topics presented include integrating neural networks and expert systems, neural networks and signal processing, machine learning, cognition and avionics applications, artificial intelligence and man-machine interface issues, real time expert systems, artificial intelligence, and engineering applications. Also considered are advanced problem solving techniques, combinational optimization for scheduling and resource control, data fusion/sensor fusion, back propagation with momentum, shared weights and recurrency, automatic target recognition, cybernetics, optical neural networks.

Supervised multimedia categorization

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Aldershoff, Frank; Salden, Alfons H.; Iacob, Sorin M.; Kempen, Masja

2003-01-01

Static multimedia on the Web can already be hardly structured manually. Although unavoidable and necessary, manual annotation of dynamic multimedia becomes even less feasible when multimedia quickly changes in complexity, i.e. in volume, modality, and usage context. The latter context could be set by learning or other purposes of the multimedia material. This multimedia dynamics calls for categorisation systems that index, query and retrieve multimedia objects on the fly in a similar way as a human expert would. We present and demonstrate such a supervised dynamic multimedia object categorisation system. Our categorisation system comes about by continuously gauging it to a group of human experts who annotate raw multimedia for a certain domain ontology given a usage context. Thus effectively our system learns the categorisation behaviour of human experts. By inducing supervised multi-modal content and context-dependent potentials our categorisation system associates field strengths of raw dynamic multimedia object categorisations with those human experts would assign. After a sufficient long period of supervised machine learning we arrive at automated robust and discriminative multimedia categorisation. We demonstrate the usefulness and effectiveness of our multimedia categorisation system in retrieving semantically meaningful soccer-video fragments, in particular by taking advantage of multimodal and domain specific information and knowledge supplied by human experts.

European Scientific Notes. Volume 38, Number 7.

DTIC Science & Technology

1984-07-01

ExetSystems 41/184 Several kinds of meical aa have been represented as flowcharts and tables and used as a basis for expert systems. The data are being...Schuljahres- beginn (Controversy over School Begin- ning); Kognitive Komplexitat (Cognitive Complexity); Moralisches Verhalten NEW PUBLICATIONS FROM

Expert agreements and disagreements on induced seismicity by Enhanced Geothermal Systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Trutnevyte, E.; Azevedo, I. L.

2016-12-01

Enhanced or Engineered Geothermal Systems (EGS) are at an early stage of development and only a handful of projects exist worldwide. In face of limited empirical evidence on EGS induced seismicity, expert elicitation provides a complementary view to quantitative assessments and basic science. We present the results of an international expert elicitation exercise with 14 experts from 6 countries. The elicitation aimed at evaluating induced seismicity hazard and risk for EGS and characterizing associated uncertainty. The state-of-the-art expert elicitation method was used: it combines technical analysis with behavioral science-informed elicitation of expert judgement in order to minimize subjectivity. The experts assessed a harmonized scenario of an EGS plant, its operational characteristics, geological context, and surrounding buildings and infrastructures. The experts provided quantitative estimates of exceedance probabilities of induced M>=3 and M>=5, maximum magnitudes that could be observed, and made judgements on economic loss, injuries, and fatalities in the case of M=3 and M=5. The experts also rated the importance of factors that influence induced seismicity hazard and risk (e.g. reservoir depth, injected volumes, exposed building stock etc.) and the potential uncertainty reductions through future research. We present the findings of this elicitation and highlight the points of expert agreements and disagreements.

Space Station needs, attributes and architectural options study. Volume 7-4A: Data book, architecture, technology and programmatics, part A

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1983-01-01

Various parameters of the orbital space station are discussed. The space station environment, data management system, communication and tracking, environmental control, and life support system are considered. Specific topics reviewed include crew work stations, restraint systems, stowage, computer hardware, and expert systems.

Computer assisted diagnosis in renal nuclear medicine: rationale, methodology and interpretative criteria for diuretic renography

PubMed Central

Taylor, Andrew T; Garcia, Ernest V

2014-01-01

The goal of artificial intelligence, expert systems, decision support systems and computer assisted diagnosis (CAD) in imaging is the development and implementation of software to assist in the detection and evaluation of abnormalities, to alert physicians to cognitive biases, to reduce intra and inter-observer variability and to facilitate the interpretation of studies at a faster rate and with a higher level of accuracy. These developments are needed to meet the challenges resulting from a rapid increase in the volume of diagnostic imaging studies coupled with a concurrent increase in the number and complexity of images in each patient data. The convergence of an expanding knowledge base and escalating time constraints increases the likelihood of physician errors. Errors are even more likely when physicians interpret low volume studies such as 99mTc-MAG3 diuretic scans where imagers may have had limited training or experience. Decision support systems include neural networks, case-based reasoning, expert systems and statistical systems. iRENEX (renal expert) is an expert system for diuretic renography that uses a set of rules obtained from human experts to analyze a knowledge base of both clinical parameters and quantitative parameters derived from the renogram. Initial studies have shown that the interpretations provided by iRENEX are comparable to the interpretations of a panel of experts. iRENEX provides immediate patient specific feedback at the time of scan interpretation, can be queried to provide the reasons for its conclusions and can be used as an educational tool to teach trainees to better interpret renal scans. iRENEX also has the capacity to populate a structured reporting module and generate a clear and concise impression based on the elements contained in the report; adherence to the procedural and data entry components of the structured reporting module assures and documents procedural competency. Finally, although the focus is CAD applied to diuretic renography, this review offers a window into the rationale, methodology and broader applications of computer assisted diagnosis in medical imaging. PMID:24484751

A Modified User-Oriented Heuristic Evaluation of a Mobile Health System for Diabetes Self-management Support

PubMed Central

Georgsson, Mattias; Staggers, Nancy; Weir, Charlene

2016-01-01

Mobile health platforms offer significant opportunities for improving diabetic self-care, but only if adequate usability exists. Expert evaluations such as heuristic evaluation can provide distinct usability information about systems. The purpose of this study was to complete a usability evaluation of a mobile health system for diabetes patients using a modified heuristic evaluation technique of (1) dual-domain experts (healthcare professionals, usability experts), (2) validated scenarios and user tasks related to patients’ self-care, and (3) in-depth severity factor ratings. Experts identified 129 usability problems with 274 heuristic violations for the system. The categories Consistency and Standards dominated at 24.1% (n = 66), followed by Match Between System and Real World at 22.3% (n = 61). Average severity ratings across system views were 2.8 (of 4), with 9.3% (n = 12) rated as catastrophic and 53.5% (n = 69) as major. The large volume of violations with severe ratings indicated clear priorities for redesign. The modified heuristic approach allowed evaluators to identify unique and important issues, including ones related to self-management and patient safety. This article provides a template for one type of expert evaluation adding to the informaticists’ toolbox when needing to conduct a fast, resource-efficient and user-oriented heuristic evaluation. PMID:26657618

A Modified User-Oriented Heuristic Evaluation of a Mobile Health System for Diabetes Self-management Support.

PubMed

Georgsson, Mattias; Staggers, Nancy; Weir, Charlene

2016-02-01

Mobile health platforms offer significant opportunities for improving diabetic self-care, but only if adequate usability exists. Expert evaluations such as heuristic evaluation can provide distinct usability information about systems. The purpose of this study was to complete a usability evaluation of a mobile health system for diabetes patients using a modified heuristic evaluation technique of (1) dual-domain experts (healthcare professionals, usability experts), (2) validated scenarios and user tasks related to patients' self-care, and (3) in-depth severity factor ratings. Experts identified 129 usability problems with 274 heuristic violations for the system. The categories Consistency and Standards dominated at 24.1% (n = 66), followed by Match Between System and Real World at 22.3% (n = 61). Average severity ratings across system views were 2.8 (of 4), with 9.3% (n = 12) rated as catastrophic and 53.5% (n = 69) as major. The large volume of violations with severe ratings indicated clear priorities for redesign. The modified heuristic approach allowed evaluators to identify unique and important issues, including ones related to self-management and patient safety. This article provides a template for one type of expert evaluation adding to the informaticists' toolbox when needing to conduct a fast, resource-efficient and user-oriented heuristic evaluation.

The Redesign of Urban School Systems: Case Studies in District Governance

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McAdams, Donald R., Ed.; Katzir, Dan, Ed.

2013-01-01

"The Redesign of Urban School Systems" provides a uniquely valuable resource for anyone involved in preparing education leaders for the political and practical realities of district-based school reform. Edited by two leading experts in education reform, this absorbing volume brings together twelve teaching cases on urban school…

An expert system for wind shear avoidance

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Stengel, Robert F.; Stratton, D. Alexander

1990-01-01

A study of intelligent guidance and control concepts for protecting against the adverse effects of wind shear during aircraft takeoffs and landings is being conducted, with current emphasis on developing an expert system for wind shear avoidance. Principal objectives are to develop methods for assessing the likelihood of wind shear encounter (based on real-time information in the cockpit), for deciding what flight path to pursue (e.g., takeoff abort, landing go-around, or normal climbout or glide slope), and for using the aircraft's full potential for combating wind shear. This study requires the definition of both deterministic and statistical techniques for fusing internal and external information , for making go/no-go decisions, and for generating commands to the manually controlled flight. The program has begun with the development of the WindShear Safety Advisor, an expert system for pilot aiding that is based on the FAA Windshear Training Aid; a two-volume manual that presents an overview , pilot guide, training program, and substantiating data provides guidelines for this initial development. The WindShear Safety Advisor expert system currently contains over 200 rules and is coded in the LISP programming language.

NASA-STD 3001 and the Human Integration Design Handbook (HIDH): Evolution of NASA-STD-3000

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Pickett, Lynn; Connolly, Janis; Arch, M.; Tillman, Barry; Russo, Dane

2007-01-01

The Habitability & Environmental Factors and Space Medicine Divisions have developed the Space Flight Human System Standard (SFHSS) (NASA-STD-3001) to replace NASA-STD-3000 as a new NASA standard for all human spaceflight programs. The SFHSS is composed of 2 volumes. Volume 1, Crew Health, contains medical levels of care, permissible exposure limits, and fitness for duty criteria, and permissible outcome limits as a means of defining successful operating criteria for the human system. Volume 2, Habitability and Environmental Health, contains environmental, habitability and human factors standards. Development of the Human Integration Design Handbook (HIDH), a companion to the standard, is currently under construction and entails the update and revision of NASA-STD-3000 data. This new handbook will, in the fashion of NASA STD-3000, assist engineers and designers in appropriately applying habitability, environmental and human factors principles to spacecraft design. Organized in a chapter-module-element structure, the HIDH will provide the guidance for the development of requirements, design considerations, lessons learned, example solutions, background research, and assist in the identification of gaps and research needs in the disciplines. Subject matter experts have been and continue to be solicited to participate in the update of the chapters. The purpose is to build the HIDH with the best and latest data, and provide a broad representation from experts in industry, academia, the military and the space program. The handbook and the two standards volumes work together in a unique way to achieve the required level of human-system interface. All new NASA programs will be required to meet Volumes 1 and 2. Volume 2 presents human interface goals in broad, non-verifiable standards. Volume 2 also requires that each new development program prepare a set of program-specific human factors requirements. These program-specific human and environmental factors requirements must be verifiable and tailored to assure the new system meets the Volume 2 standards. Programs will use the HIDH to write their verifiable program-specific requirements.

Preventing Fire Death and Injury, Conducting a Fire Drill in a Group Home [and] When You Need a Fire Safety Expert. National Fire Safety Certification System. Continuing Education Program. Volume 1, Numbers 1-3.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Walker, Bonnie

Three booklets provide fire safety information for staff of residential facilities serving people with developmental disabilities. Booklets focus on: (1) preventing fire death and injury, (2) conducting a fire drill in a group home, and (3) the role of fire safety experts. The first booklet stresses the elimination of the following dangers:…

Living Expert System (LEXSYS). Volume 7

DTIC Science & Technology

1989-05-15

34service" was on the decline, however the finding might not apply to the general population of young adults . College Kids are moving toward a specific...the expertise of the experts to rub off on the sta_. (and vice versa) -- thereby increasing their esteem i: the eyes of the decision maker (hopefully...John Lesko: ref: 2:4 ... the key is not in ’overcoming’ anything (the ole boy net or the formal staff relationships ) ... LEXSYS maybe able to discipline

Testing and Evaluating C3I Systems That Employ AI. Volume 1. Handbook for Testing Expert Systems

DTIC Science & Technology

1991-01-31

Designs ....... ............. .. 6-29 Nonequivalent Control Group Design ...does not receive the system; and (c) nonequivalent (and nonrandomized) control group designs that rely on statistical techniques like analysis of...implementation); (b) multiple time-series designs using a control group ; and (c) nonequivalent control group designs that obtain pretest and

Hippocampal volume change measurement: quantitative assessment of the reproducibility of expert manual outlining and the automated methods FreeSurfer and FIRST.

PubMed

Mulder, Emma R; de Jong, Remko A; Knol, Dirk L; van Schijndel, Ronald A; Cover, Keith S; Visser, Pieter J; Barkhof, Frederik; Vrenken, Hugo

2014-05-15

To measure hippocampal volume change in Alzheimer's disease (AD) or mild cognitive impairment (MCI), expert manual delineation is often used because of its supposed accuracy. It has been suggested that expert outlining yields poorer reproducibility as compared to automated methods, but this has not been investigated. To determine the reproducibilities of expert manual outlining and two common automated methods for measuring hippocampal atrophy rates in healthy aging, MCI and AD. From the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI), 80 subjects were selected: 20 patients with AD, 40 patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and 20 healthy controls (HCs). Left and right hippocampal volume change between baseline and month-12 visit was assessed by using expert manual delineation, and by the automated software packages FreeSurfer (longitudinal processing stream) and FIRST. To assess reproducibility of the measured hippocampal volume change, both back-to-back (BTB) MPRAGE scans available for each visit were analyzed. Hippocampal volume change was expressed in μL, and as a percentage of baseline volume. Reproducibility of the 1-year hippocampal volume change was estimated from the BTB measurements by using linear mixed model to calculate the limits of agreement (LoA) of each method, reflecting its measurement uncertainty. Using the delta method, approximate p-values were calculated for the pairwise comparisons between methods. Statistical analyses were performed both with inclusion and exclusion of visibly incorrect segmentations. Visibly incorrect automated segmentation in either one or both scans of a longitudinal scan pair occurred in 7.5% of the hippocampi for FreeSurfer and in 6.9% of the hippocampi for FIRST. After excluding these failed cases, reproducibility analysis for 1-year percentage volume change yielded LoA of ±7.2% for FreeSurfer, ±9.7% for expert manual delineation, and ±10.0% for FIRST. Methods ranked the same for reproducibility of 1-year μL volume change, with LoA of ±218 μL for FreeSurfer, ±319 μL for expert manual delineation, and ±333 μL for FIRST. Approximate p-values indicated that reproducibility was better for FreeSurfer than for manual or FIRST, and that manual and FIRST did not differ. Inclusion of failed automated segmentations led to worsening of reproducibility of both automated methods for 1-year raw and percentage volume change. Quantitative reproducibility values of 1-year microliter and percentage hippocampal volume change were roughly similar between expert manual outlining, FIRST and FreeSurfer, but FreeSurfer reproducibility was statistically significantly superior to both manual outlining and FIRST after exclusion of failed segmentations. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The Shrinkage Model And Expert System Of Plastic Lens Formation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chang, Rong-Seng

1988-06-01

Shrinkage causes both the appearance & dimension defects of the injected plastic lens. We have built up a model of state equations with the help of finite element analysis program to estimate the volume change (shrinkage and swelling) under the combinations of injection variables such as pressure and temperature etc., then the personal computer expert system has been build up to make that knowledge conveniently available to the user in the model design, process planning, process operation and some other work. The domain knowledge is represented by a R-graph (Relationship-graph) model which states the relationships of variables & equations. This model could be compare with other models in the expert system. If the user has better model to solve the shrinkage problem, the program will evaluate it automatically and a learning file will be trigger by the expert system to teach the user to update their knowledge base and modify the old model by this better model. The Rubin's model and Gilmore's model have been input to the expert system. The conflict has been solved both from the user and the deeper knowledge base. A cube prism and the convex lens examples have been shown in this paper. This program is written by MULISP language in IBM PC-AT. The natural language provides English Explaination of know why and know how and the automatic English translation for the equation rules and the production rules.

Planet Formation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Klahr, Hubert; Brandner, Wolfgang

2006-05-01

This volume addresses fundamental questions concerning the formation of planetary systems in general, and of our solar system in particular. Drawing from recent advances in observational, experimental, and theoretical research, it summarises our current understanding of the planet formation processes, and addresses major open questions and research issues. Chapters are written by leading experts in the field of planet formation and extrasolar planet studies. The book is based on a meeting held at Ringberg Castle in Bavaria, where experts gathered together to present and exchange their ideas and findings. It is a comprehensive resource for graduate students and researchers, and is written to be accessible to newcomers to the field.

A knowledge-based approach to configuration layout, justification, and documentation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Craig, F. G.; Cutts, D. E.; Fennel, T. R.; Case, C.; Palmer, J. R.

1990-01-01

The design, development, and implementation is described of a prototype expert system which could aid designers and system engineers in the placement of racks aboard modules on Space Station Freedom. This type of problem is relevant to any program with multiple constraints and requirements demanding solutions which minimize usage of limited resources. This process is generally performed by a single, highly experienced engineer who integrates all the diverse mission requirements and limitations, and develops an overall technical solution which meets program and system requirements with minimal cost, weight, volume, power, etc. This system architect performs an intellectual integration process in which the underlying design rationale is often not fully documented. This is a situation which lends itself to an expert system solution for enhanced consistency, thoroughness, documentation, and change assessment capabilities.

A Knowledge-Based Approach to Configuration Layout, Justification, and Documentation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Craig, F. G.; Cutts, D. E.; Fennel, T. R.; Case, C. M.; Palmer, J. R.

1991-01-01

The design, development, and implementation of a prototype expert system which could aid designers and system engineers in the placement of racks aboard modules on the Space Station Freedom are described. This type of problem is relevant to any program with multiple constraints and requirements demanding solutions which minimize usage of limited resources. This process is generally performed by a single, highly experienced engineer who integrates all the diverse mission requirements and limitations, and develops an overall technical solution which meets program and system requirements with minimal cost, weight, volume, power, etc. This system architect performs an intellectual integration process in which the underlying design rationale is often not fully documented. This is a situation which lends itself to an expert system solution for enhanced consistency, thoroughness, documentation, and change assessment capabilities.

The Post-Dam System. Volume 5. Harvard Project Manager (HPM).

DTIC Science & Technology

1992-10-01

cQllected and analyzed to determine structural integrity and usability. From this analysis, a repair schedule is developed. This is currently a time...information on mission-critical facility damage is collected and analyzed to determine structural integrity and usability. From this analysis, a repair...to determine repair strategies with an expert system, keep track of materials and equipment with a relational database management system, and

Assessing experience in the deliberate practice of running using a fuzzy decision-support system

PubMed Central

Roveri, Maria Isabel; Manoel, Edison de Jesus; Onodera, Andrea Naomi; Ortega, Neli R. S.; Tessutti, Vitor Daniel; Vilela, Emerson; Evêncio, Nelson

2017-01-01

The judgement of skill experience and its levels is ambiguous though it is crucial for decision-making in sport sciences studies. We developed a fuzzy decision support system to classify experience of non-elite distance runners. Two Mamdani subsystems were developed based on expert running coaches’ knowledge. In the first subsystem, the linguistic variables of training frequency and volume were combined and the output defined the quality of running practice. The second subsystem yielded the level of running experience from the combination of the first subsystem output with the number of competitions and practice time. The model results were highly consistent with the judgment of three expert running coaches (r>0.88, p<0.001) and also with five other expert running coaches (r>0.86, p<0.001). From the expert’s knowledge and the fuzzy model, running experience is beyond the so-called "10-year rule" and depends not only on practice time, but on the quality of practice (training volume and frequency) and participation in competitions. The fuzzy rule-based model was very reliable, valid, deals with the marked ambiguities inherent in the judgment of experience and has potential applications in research, sports training, and clinical settings. PMID:28817655

Challenges and Opportunities for Innovation in the Public Works Infrastructure. Volume 1.

DTIC Science & Technology

1993-06-01

managing innovation are continuously moving into the private sector seeking higher wages. Political Agendas. Frequent emphasis on short-term, high...Colglazier, Jr., " Managing Innovation ," Pergamon Press (1982). Mitropoulos, P., "An Expert System Technology Transfer Model for the Architecture-Engineering

EXPERT SYSTEMS FOR MIXING-ZONE ANALYSIS AND DESIGN OF POLLUTANT DISCHARGES

EPA Science Inventory

Water-quality policy in the United States includes the concept of a mixing zone, a limited area or volume of water where initial dilution of an aqueous pollutant discharge occurs. iven a myriad of possible discharge configurations, ambient environments, and mixing zone definition...

Automated Propulsion Data Screening demonstration system

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hoyt, W. Andes; Choate, Timothy D.; Whitehead, Bruce A.

1995-01-01

A fully-instrumented firing of a propulsion system typically generates a very large quantity of data. In the case of the Space Shuttle Main Engine (SSME), data analysis from ground tests and flights is currently a labor-intensive process. Human experts spend a great deal of time examining the large volume of sensor data generated by each engine firing. These experts look for any anomalies in the data which might indicate engine conditions warranting further investigation. The contract effort was to develop a 'first-cut' screening system for application to SSME engine firings that would identify the relatively small volume of data which is unusual or anomalous in some way. With such a system, limited and expensive human resources could focus on this small volume of unusual data for thorough analysis. The overall project objective was to develop a fully operational Automated Propulsion Data Screening (APDS) system with the capability of detecting significant trends and anomalies in transient and steady-state data. However, the effort limited screening of transient data to ground test data for throttle-down cases typical of the 3-g acceleration, and for engine throttling required to reach the maximum dynamic pressure limits imposed on the Space Shuttle. This APDS is based on neural networks designed to detect anomalies in propulsion system data that are not part of the data used for neural network training. The delivered system allows engineers to build their own screening sets for application to completed or planned firings of the SSME. ERC developers also built some generic screening sets that NASA engineers could apply immediately to their data analysis efforts.

An expert system for wind shear avoidance

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Stengel, Robert F.; Stratton, D. Alexander

1990-01-01

The principal objectives are to develop methods for assessing the likelihood of wind shear encounter (based on real-time information in the cockpit), for deciding what flight path to pursue (e.g., takeoff abort, landing go-around, or normal climbout or glide slope), and for using the aircraft's full potential for combating wind shear. This study requires the definition of both deterministic and statistical techniques for fusing internal and external information, for making go/no-go decisions, and for generating commands to the aircraft's autopilot and flight directors for both automatic and manually controlled flight. The expert system for pilot aiding is based on the results of the FAA Windshear Training Aids Program, a two-volume manual that presents an overview, pilot guide, training program, and substantiating data that provides guidelines for this initial development. The Windshear Safety Advisor expert system currently contains over 140 rules and is coded in the LISP programming language for implementation on a Symbolics 3670 LISP Machine.

Vapor Compression Distillation Subsystem (VCDS) Component Enhancement, Testing and Expert Fault Diagnostics Development, Volume 2

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Mallinak, E. S.

1987-01-01

A wide variety of Space Station functions will be managed via computerized controls. Many of these functions are at the same time very complex and very critical to the operation of the Space Station. The Environmental Control and Life Support System is one group of very complex and critical subsystems which directly affects the ability of the crew to perform their mission. Failure of the Environmental Control and Life Support Subsystems are to be avoided and, in the event of failure, repair must be effected as rapidly as possible. Due to the complex and diverse nature of the subsystems, it is not possible to train the Space Station crew to be experts in the operation of all of the subsystems. By applying the concepts of computer-based expert systems, it may be possible to provide the necessary expertise for these subsystems in dedicated controllers. In this way, an expert system could avoid failures and extend the operating time of the subsystems even in the event of failure of some components, and could reduce the time to repair by being able to pinpoint the cause of a failure when one cannot be avoided.

Expert Systems on Multiprocessor Architectures. Volume 2. Technical Reports

DTIC Science & Technology

1991-06-01

Report RC 12936 (#58037). IBM T. J. Wartson Reiearch Center. July 1987. � Alan Jay Smith. Cache memories. Coniputing Sitrry., 1.1(3): I.3-5:30...basic-shared is an instrument for ashared memory design. The components panels are processor- qload-scrolling-bar-panel, memory-qload-scrolling-bar-panel

Production Systems as a Programming Language for Artificial Intelligence Applications. Volume III.

DTIC Science & Technology

1976-12-01

that the reader has some familiarity with Volume I of this report, which discusses the goals and conclusions of the thesis as a whole, and which...probably a suitable domain only for chess experts (which I am not), it will still be useful for the present thesis for the following reasons. As Berliner...chapters of this thesis do focus on such storage problems. Three other representational and low-level PS issues can be mentioned. Words are

Northeast Artificial Intelligence Consortium (NAIC) Review of Technical Tasks. Volume 2, Part 1.

DTIC Science & Technology

1987-07-01

34- . 6.2 Transformation Invariant Attributes for S Digitized Object Outlines ................................. 469 6.3 Design of an Inference Engine for an...Attributes for Digital Object Outlines ...................................... 597 7 SPEECH UNDERSTANDING RESEARCH ( Rochester Institute of Technology...versatile maintenance expert system ES) for trouble-shooting--’ digital circuits. +" Some diagnosis systems, such as MYCLN [19] for medical diagnosis and CRIB

Space station automation study. Volume 1: Executive summary. Autonomous systems and assembly

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1984-01-01

The space station automation study (SSAS) was to develop informed technical guidance for NASA personnel in the use of autonomy and autonomous systems to implement space station functions. The initial step taken by NASA in organizing the SSAS was to form and convene a panel of recognized expert technologists in automation, space sciences and aerospace engineering to produce a space station automation plan.

Supporting performance and configuration management of GTE cellular networks

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Tan, Ming; Lafond, C.; Jakobson, G.

GTE Laboratories, in cooperation with GTE Mobilnet, has developed and deployed PERFFEX (PERFormance Expert), an intelligent system for performance and configuration management of cellular networks. PERFEX assists cellular network performance and radio engineers in the analysis of large volumes of cellular network performance and configuration data. It helps them locate and determine the probable causes of performance problems, and provides intelligent suggestions about how to correct them. The system combines an expert cellular network performance tuning capability with a map-based graphical user interface, data visualization programs, and a set of special cellular engineering tools. PERFEX is in daily use atmore » more than 25 GTE Mobile Switching Centers. Since the first deployment of the system in late 1993, PERFEX has become a major GTE cellular network performance optimization tool.« less

Patient-specific instruments: industry's innovation with a surgeon's interest.

PubMed

Thienpont, Emmanuel; Bellemans, Johan; Delport, Hendrik; Van Overschelde, Philippe; Stuyts, Bart; Brabants, Karl; Victor, Jan

2013-10-01

The aim of this study was (1) to survey the orthopaedic companies about the volume of patient-specific instruments (PSI) used in Europe and worldwide; (2) to survey a group of knee arthroplasty surgeons on their acceptance of PSI and finally; (3) to survey a medico-legal expert on PSI-related issues. Seven orthopaedic implant manufacturers were contacted to obtain their sales figures (in volume) of PSI in Europe and worldwide for the 2011 and 2012 period. During the Open Meeting of the Belgian Knee Society, a survey by a direct voting system was submitted to a selection of knee surgeons. Finally, a number of medico-legal 'PSI-related' questions were submitted to an adult reconstruction surgeon/legal expert. The total volume, for all contacted companies, of PSI in Europe for 2012 was 17,515 total knee arthroplasty (TKA) and 82,556 TKA worldwide. Biomet (Warsaw, USA) was the number one in volume, both in Europe as worldwide with their Signature system. Biomet represented 27 % of the market share in PSI worldwide. Stryker preferred not to reply to the survey because of the FDA class 1 recall on ShapeMatch cutting guides. Eighty per cent of the Belgian knee surgeons expressed a great interest in PSI and especially, for 58 % of them, if it would increase their surgical accuracy. They valued it even more in unicompartmental arthroplasty, and 55 % was ready to use single-use instruments. Surprisingly, 47 % of surgeons thought it was the company's responsibility if something goes wrong with a PSI-assisted case. The medico-legal expert concluded that PSI is a complex process that exposes surgeons to new risks in case of failure and stated that companies should not produce surgical guides without validation of the planning by the surgeon. Patient-specific instruments is of great interest if it can proof to increase the surgical accuracy in knee arthroplasty to the level surgeons are expecting and if in the same time it would make the surgical process more efficient. V.

Knowledge-Based Integrated Information Systems Engineering: Highlights and Bibliography. Volume 1.

DTIC Science & Technology

1987-12-01

of database technology, 0 communication technology and expert systems technology. , Organizational issues cover the process of making controlled... process of linking strategic goals, technical issues , and organizational aspects can be depicted as shown in Figure 2.2. At the top level, strategic...an integrated information system design and implementation in a short period of time [4]. 2.2.2 Emphasis on Process It was mentioned in Section 1.3

Expert Systems on Multiprocessor Architectures. Volume 4. Technical Reports

DTIC Science & Technology

1991-06-01

Floated-Current-Time0 -> The time that this function is called in user time uflts, expressed as a floating point number. Halt- Poligono Arrests the...default a statistics file will be printed out, if it can be. To prevent this make No-Statistics true. Unhalt- Poligono Unarrests the process in which the

Structural neuroplasticity in expert pianists depends on the age of musical training onset.

PubMed

Vaquero, Lucía; Hartmann, Karl; Ripollés, Pablo; Rojo, Nuria; Sierpowska, Joanna; François, Clément; Càmara, Estela; van Vugt, Floris Tijmen; Mohammadi, Bahram; Samii, Amir; Münte, Thomas F; Rodríguez-Fornells, Antoni; Altenmüller, Eckart

2016-02-01

In the last decade, several studies have investigated the neuroplastic changes induced by long-term musical training. Here we investigated structural brain differences in expert pianists compared to non-musician controls, as well as the effect of the age of onset (AoO) of piano playing. Differences with non-musicians and the effect of sensitive periods in musicians have been studied previously, but importantly, this is the first time in which the age of onset of music-training was assessed in a group of musicians playing the same instrument, while controlling for the amount of practice. We recruited a homogeneous group of expert pianists who differed in their AoO but not in their lifetime or present amount of training, and compared them to an age-matched group of non-musicians. A subset of the pianists also completed a scale-playing task in order to control for performance skill level differences. Voxel-based morphometry analysis was used to examine gray-matter differences at the whole-brain level. Pianists showed greater gray matter (GM) volume in bilateral putamen (extending also to hippocampus and amygdala), right thalamus, bilateral lingual gyri and left superior temporal gyrus, but a GM volume shrinkage in the right supramarginal, right superior temporal and right postcentral gyri, when compared to non-musician controls. These results reveal a complex pattern of plastic effects due to sustained musical training: a network involved in reinforcement learning showed increased GM volume, while areas related to sensorimotor control, auditory processing and score-reading presented a reduction in the volume of GM. Behaviorally, early-onset pianists showed higher temporal precision in their piano performance than late-onset pianists, especially in the left hand. Furthermore, early onset of piano playing was associated with smaller GM volume in the right putamen and better piano performance (mainly in the left hand). Our results, therefore, reveal for the first time in a single large dataset of healthy pianists the link between onset of musical practice, behavioral performance, and putaminal gray matter structure. In summary, skill-related plastic adaptations may include decreases and increases in GM volume, dependent on an optimization of the system caused by an early start of musical training. We believe our findings enrich the plasticity discourse and shed light on the neural basis of expert skill acquisition. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

An overview of artificial intelligence and robotics. Volume 1: Artificial intelligence. Part B: Applications

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gevarter, W. B.

1983-01-01

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is an emerging technology that has recently attracted considerable attention. Many applications are now under development. This report, Part B of a three part report on AI, presents overviews of the key application areas: Expert Systems, Computer Vision, Natural Language Processing, Speech Interfaces, and Problem Solving and Planning. The basic approaches to such systems, the state-of-the-art, existing systems and future trends and expectations are covered.

Automated screening of propulsion system test data by neural networks, phase 1

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hoyt, W. Andes; Whitehead, Bruce A.

1992-01-01

The evaluation of propulsion system test and flight performance data involves reviewing an extremely large volume of sensor data generated by each test. An automated system that screens large volumes of data and identifies propulsion system parameters which appear unusual or anomalous will increase the productivity of data analysis. Data analysts may then focus on a smaller subset of anomalous data for further evaluation of propulsion system tests. Such an automated data screening system would give NASA the benefit of a reduction in the manpower and time required to complete a propulsion system data evaluation. A phase 1 effort to develop a prototype data screening system is reported. Neural networks will detect anomalies based on nominal propulsion system data only. It appears that a reasonable goal for an operational system would be to screen out 95 pct. of the nominal data, leaving less than 5 pct. needing further analysis by human experts.

Proceedings of the 1998 U.S. DOE Hydrogen Program Review: Volume 2

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

NONE

1998-08-01

This document contains technical progress reports on 42 research projects funded by the DOE Hydrogen Program in Fiscal Year 1998, in support of its mission to make hydrogen a cost-effective energy carrier for utility, building, and transportation applications. Each year, the Program conducts a rigorous review of its portfolio of projects, utilizing teams of experts to provide vital feedback on the progress of research. These proceedings serve as an important technology reference for the DOE Hydrogen Program. The papers in Volume 2 are arranged under the following topical sections: Storage and separation systems; Thermal systems; and Transportation systems. Selected papersmore » have been indexed separately for inclusion in the Energy Science and Technology Database.« less

Is South Korea a Case of High-Stakes Testing Gone Too Far? Information Capsule. Volume 1107

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Blazer, Christie

2012-01-01

South Korea's students consistently outperform their counterparts in almost every country in reading and math. Experts have concluded, however, that the South Korean education system has produced students who score well on tests, but fall short on creativity and innovative thinking. They blame these shortcomings on schools' emphasis on rote…

Designing a New Taxonomy of Educational Objectives. Experts in Assessment.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Marzano, Robert J.

This volume is an attempt to articulate a taxonomy of educational objectives that uses the best available research and theory accumulated since the publication of the taxonomy of educational objectives of B. Bloom and others in 1956. Like Bloom's taxonomy, this taxonomy defines six levels of mental processing: self-system thinking (Level 6);…

Reinventing Financial Aid: Charting a New Course to College Affordability

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kelly, Andrew P., Ed.; Goldrick-Rab, Sara, Ed.

2014-01-01

In this provocative volume, two experts with very different points of view address the growing concern that student loan programs are not a sustainable solution to the problem of mounting college costs. They argue that the time has come to reform the financial aid system so that it is more effective in promoting college affordability, access, and…

Motivation Matters: Engaging Students, Creating Learners. Diplomas Count, 2014. Education Week. Volume 33, Number 34

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Edwards, Virginia B., Ed.

2014-01-01

Educators and experts alike have come to a growing realization that academic factors alone do not tell the whole story of what it means to successfully navigate the educational system through high school and into higher education or the workplace. This national report from "Education Week" investigates the role that student engagement…

Expert Systems on Multiprocessor Architectures. Volume 3. Technical Reports

DTIC Science & Technology

1991-06-01

choice of load balancing vs. load sharing 1141. While load balancing strives to keep all sites equally loaded, load sharing merely tries to prevent ...unnecessary idleness. Loo. balancing is appropriate to object- oriented real- time systems because * real-time systems ne ,l to prevent long waits for...oetavir ConClass siy51cr Iz a n ubjeU rephitation ’-enare ir order wo prevent a partic=Lar abiec:;ram heing (ntrlu ~lel Ar iic]en:f etautaan ire chanw

Architectures and methodologies for future deployment of multi-site Zettabyte-Exascale data handling platforms

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Acín, V.; Bird, I.; Boccali, T.; Cancio, G.; Collier, I. P.; Corney, D.; Delaunay, B.; Delfino, M.; dell'Agnello, L.; Flix, J.; Fuhrmann, P.; Gasthuber, M.; Gülzow, V.; Heiss, A.; Lamanna, G.; Macchi, P.-E.; Maggi, M.; Matthews, B.; Neissner, C.; Nief, J.-Y.; Porto, M. C.; Sansum, A.; Schulz, M.; Shiers, J.

2015-12-01

Several scientific fields, including Astrophysics, Astroparticle Physics, Cosmology, Nuclear and Particle Physics, and Research with Photons, are estimating that by the 2020 decade they will require data handling systems with data volumes approaching the Zettabyte distributed amongst as many as 1018 individually addressable data objects (Zettabyte-Exascale systems). It may be convenient or necessary to deploy such systems using multiple physical sites. This paper describes the findings of a working group composed of experts from several

Development of casthouse expert system for tapping

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Takihira, K.; Ino, K.; Yamana, S.

1993-01-01

Although the standardization of casting operations is necessary to secure stable blast furnace operation, intuitive practices (which are by definition non-quantifiable) and experience are prevalent. Because BF operation is a field which is difficult to standardize and reduce to documentary form, the present work had as its goal the standardization of judgments and systematization of information related to taphole opening and closing. The project was carried out in the highly computerized environment at Mizushima No. 3 BF, where the authors introduced an expert system guidance function in February, 1992. Standardization of operations through the use of this guidance system andmore » the completion of guidance function development resulted in better consistency in taphole depths and optimization of the size of the taphole (taphole volume), which have in turn led to improvement in the pig/slag balance and a reduction in the time required for taphole opening.« less

Northeast Artificial Intelligence Consortium annual report. Volume 2. 1988. Discussing, using, and recognizing plans (NLP). Interim report, January-December 1988

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Shapiro, S.C.; Woolf, B.

The Northeast Artificial Intelligence Consortium (NAIC) was created by the Air Force Systems Command, Rome Air Development Center, and the Office of Scientific Research. Its purpose is to conduct pertinent research in artificial intelligence and to perform activities ancillary to this research. This report describes progress that has been made in the fourth year of the existence of the NAIC on the technical research tasks undertaken at the member universities. The topics covered in general are: versatile expert system for equipment maintenance, distributed AI for communications system control, automatic photointerpretation, time-oriented problem solving, speech understanding systems, knowledge base maintenance, hardwaremore » architectures for very large systems, knowledge-based reasoning and planning, and a knowledge acquisition, assistance, and explanation system. The specific topic for this volume is the recognition of plans expressed in natural language, followed by their discussion and use.« less

Methodology Investigation of AI(Artificial Intelligence) Test Officer Support Tool. Volume 1

DTIC Science & Technology

1989-03-01

American Association for Artificial inteligence A! ............. Artificial inteliigence AMC ............ Unt:ed States Army Maeriel Comand ASL...block number) FIELD GROUP SUB-GROUP Artificial Intelligence, Expert Systems Automated Aids to Testing 9. ABSTRACT (Continue on reverse if necessary and...identify by block number) This report covers the application of Artificial Intelligence-Techniques to the problem of creating automated tools to

Results of a Survey Software Development Project Management in the U.S. Aerospace Industry. Volume III. Major Problems.

DTIC Science & Technology

1979-12-18

simplifies the staffing of a project and assures the experience is ’ recyclable ’." "Staff or members are considered ’universal experts’. During estimation...impact of changes upon the original system." "Project reviews are typically exercises in trivia ." [Keider, 1974] ____ ,,, , _ 55 "First, [lesson

Workshop on Aeronautical Decision Making (ADM). Volume 1. Executive Summary

DTIC Science & Technology

1992-08-01

expert and novice pilots when a real decision was required. Aeronautical Decision Making (ADM), Crew Resource Management (CRM), Advanced Qualification Program (AQP), Cognitive Task Analysis (CTA), Expert Decision Making (EDM)

KAM (Knowledge Acquisition Module): A tool to simplify the knowledge acquisition process

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gettig, Gary A.

1988-01-01

Analysts, knowledge engineers and information specialists are faced with increasing volumes of time-sensitive data in text form, either as free text or highly structured text records. Rapid access to the relevant data in these sources is essential. However, due to the volume and organization of the contents, and limitations of human memory and association, frequently: (1) important information is not located in time; (2) reams of irrelevant data are searched; and (3) interesting or critical associations are missed due to physical or temporal gaps involved in working with large files. The Knowledge Acquisition Module (KAM) is a microcomputer-based expert system designed to assist knowledge engineers, analysts, and other specialists in extracting useful knowledge from large volumes of digitized text and text-based files. KAM formulates non-explicit, ambiguous, or vague relations, rules, and facts into a manageable and consistent formal code. A library of system rules or heuristics is maintained to control the extraction of rules, relations, assertions, and other patterns from the text. These heuristics can be added, deleted or customized by the user. The user can further control the extraction process with optional topic specifications. This allows the user to cluster extracts based on specific topics. Because KAM formalizes diverse knowledge, it can be used by a variety of expert systems and automated reasoning applications. KAM can also perform important roles in computer-assisted training and skill development. Current research efforts include the applicability of neural networks to aid in the extraction process and the conversion of these extracts into standard formats.

Vivaldi: A Domain-Specific Language for Volume Processing and Visualization on Distributed Heterogeneous Systems.

PubMed

Choi, Hyungsuk; Choi, Woohyuk; Quan, Tran Minh; Hildebrand, David G C; Pfister, Hanspeter; Jeong, Won-Ki

2014-12-01

As the size of image data from microscopes and telescopes increases, the need for high-throughput processing and visualization of large volumetric data has become more pressing. At the same time, many-core processors and GPU accelerators are commonplace, making high-performance distributed heterogeneous computing systems affordable. However, effectively utilizing GPU clusters is difficult for novice programmers, and even experienced programmers often fail to fully leverage the computing power of new parallel architectures due to their steep learning curve and programming complexity. In this paper, we propose Vivaldi, a new domain-specific language for volume processing and visualization on distributed heterogeneous computing systems. Vivaldi's Python-like grammar and parallel processing abstractions provide flexible programming tools for non-experts to easily write high-performance parallel computing code. Vivaldi provides commonly used functions and numerical operators for customized visualization and high-throughput image processing applications. We demonstrate the performance and usability of Vivaldi on several examples ranging from volume rendering to image segmentation.

The composite load spectra project

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Newell, J. F.; Ho, H.; Kurth, R. E.

1990-01-01

Probabilistic methods and generic load models capable of simulating the load spectra that are induced in space propulsion system components are being developed. Four engine component types (the transfer ducts, the turbine blades, the liquid oxygen posts and the turbopump oxidizer discharge duct) were selected as representative hardware examples. The composite load spectra that simulate the probabilistic loads for these components are typically used as the input loads for a probabilistic structural analysis. The knowledge-based system approach used for the composite load spectra project provides an ideal environment for incremental development. The intelligent database paradigm employed in developing the expert system provides a smooth coupling between the numerical processing and the symbolic (information) processing. Large volumes of engine load information and engineering data are stored in database format and managed by a database management system. Numerical procedures for probabilistic load simulation and database management functions are controlled by rule modules. Rules were hard-wired as decision trees into rule modules to perform process control tasks. There are modules to retrieve load information and models. There are modules to select loads and models to carry out quick load calculations or make an input file for full duty-cycle time dependent load simulation. The composite load spectra load expert system implemented today is capable of performing intelligent rocket engine load spectra simulation. Further development of the expert system will provide tutorial capability for users to learn from it.

Computational intelligence and neuromorphic computing potential for cybersecurity applications

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pino, Robinson E.; Shevenell, Michael J.; Cam, Hasan; Mouallem, Pierre; Shumaker, Justin L.; Edwards, Arthur H.

2013-05-01

In today's highly mobile, networked, and interconnected internet world, the flow and volume of information is overwhelming and continuously increasing. Therefore, it is believed that the next frontier in technological evolution and development will rely in our ability to develop intelligent systems that can help us process, analyze, and make-sense of information autonomously just as a well-trained and educated human expert. In computational intelligence, neuromorphic computing promises to allow for the development of computing systems able to imitate natural neurobiological processes and form the foundation for intelligent system architectures.

CrossTalk. The Journal of Defense Software Engineering. Volume 25, Number 5. Sep/Oct 2012

DTIC Science & Technology

2012-10-01

the threat actors it faces (be they nation states, empowered small agents or cyber-criminals), but also to have an actuarial view of the likelihood...systems thinking, which is full of technical jargon and mathematics . He wanted non-expert educators to be able to teach the concepts to K-12 students...able to conjecture mathematically that decreasing the exposure time window will improve the resilience of a SCIT-based system. To adapt SCIT we

Quantitative three-dimensional transrectal ultrasound (TRUS) for prostate imaging

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pathak, Sayan D.; Aarnink, Rene G.; de la Rosette, Jean J.; Chalana, Vikram; Wijkstra, Hessel; Haynor, David R.; Debruyne, Frans M. J.; Kim, Yongmin

1998-06-01

With the number of men seeking medical care for prostate diseases rising steadily, the need of a fast and accurate prostate boundary detection and volume estimation tool is being increasingly experienced by the clinicians. Currently, these measurements are made manually, which results in a large examination time. A possible solution is to improve the efficiency by automating the boundary detection and volume estimation process with minimal involvement from the human experts. In this paper, we present an algorithm based on SNAKES to detect the boundaries. Our approach is to selectively enhance the contrast along the edges using an algorithm called sticks and integrate it with a SNAKES model. This integrated algorithm requires an initial curve for each ultrasound image to initiate the boundary detection process. We have used different schemes to generate the curves with a varying degree of automation and evaluated its effects on the algorithm performance. After the boundaries are identified, the prostate volume is calculated using planimetric volumetry. We have tested our algorithm on 6 different prostate volumes and compared the performance against the volumes manually measured by 3 experts. With the increase in the user inputs, the algorithm performance improved as expected. The results demonstrate that given an initial contour reasonably close to the prostate boundaries, the algorithm successfully delineates the prostate boundaries in an image, and the resulting volume measurements are in close agreement with those made by the human experts.

An expert system model for mapping tropical wetlands and peatlands reveals South America as the largest contributor.

PubMed

Gumbricht, Thomas; Roman-Cuesta, Rosa Maria; Verchot, Louis; Herold, Martin; Wittmann, Florian; Householder, Ethan; Herold, Nadine; Murdiyarso, Daniel

2017-09-01

Wetlands are important providers of ecosystem services and key regulators of climate change. They positively contribute to global warming through their greenhouse gas emissions, and negatively through the accumulation of organic material in histosols, particularly in peatlands. Our understanding of wetlands' services is currently constrained by limited knowledge on their distribution, extent, volume, interannual flood variability and disturbance levels. We present an expert system approach to estimate wetland and peatland areas, depths and volumes, which relies on three biophysical indices related to wetland and peat formation: (1) long-term water supply exceeding atmospheric water demand; (2) annually or seasonally water-logged soils; and (3) a geomorphological position where water is supplied and retained. Tropical and subtropical wetlands estimates reach 4.7 million km 2 (Mkm 2 ). In line with current understanding, the American continent is the major contributor (45%), and Brazil, with its Amazonian interfluvial region, contains the largest tropical wetland area (800,720 km 2 ). Our model suggests, however, unprecedented extents and volumes of peatland in the tropics (1.7 Mkm 2 and 7,268 (6,076-7,368) km 3 ), which more than threefold current estimates. Unlike current understanding, our estimates suggest that South America and not Asia contributes the most to tropical peatland area and volume (ca. 44% for both) partly related to some yet unaccounted extended deep deposits but mainly to extended but shallow peat in the Amazon Basin. Brazil leads the peatland area and volume contribution. Asia hosts 38% of both tropical peat area and volume with Indonesia as the main regional contributor and still the holder of the deepest and most extended peat areas in the tropics. Africa hosts more peat than previously reported but climatic and topographic contexts leave it as the least peat-forming continent. Our results suggest large biases in our current understanding of the distribution, area and volumes of tropical peat and their continental contributions. © 2017 The Authors. Global Change Biology Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Machine intelligence and autonomy for aerospace systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Heer, Ewald (Editor); Lum, Henry (Editor)

1988-01-01

The present volume discusses progress toward intelligent robot systems in aerospace applications, NASA Space Program automation and robotics efforts, the supervisory control of telerobotics in space, machine intelligence and crew/vehicle interfaces, expert-system terms and building tools, and knowledge-acquisition for autonomous systems. Also discussed are methods for validation of knowledge-based systems, a design methodology for knowledge-based management systems, knowledge-based simulation for aerospace systems, knowledge-based diagnosis, planning and scheduling methods in AI, the treatment of uncertainty in AI, vision-sensing techniques in aerospace applications, image-understanding techniques, tactile sensing for robots, distributed sensor integration, and the control of articulated and deformable space structures.

Intelligent guidance and control for wind shear encounter

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Stengel, Robert F.

1988-01-01

The principal objective is to develop methods for assessing the likelihood of wind shear encounter, for deciding what flight path to pursue, and for using the aircraft's full potential for combating wind shear. This study requires the definition of both deterministic and statistical techniques for fusing internal and external information, for making go/no-go decisions, and for generating commands to the aircraft's cockpit displays and autopilot for both manually controlled and automatic flight. The program has begun with the development of a real-time expert system for pilot aiding that is based on the results of the FAA Windshear Training Aids Program. A two-volume manual that presents an overview, pilot guide, training program, and substantiating data provides guidelines for this initial development. The Expert System to Avoid Wind Shear (ESAWS) currently contains over 140 rules and is coded in the LISP programming language for implementation on a Symbolics 3670 LISP machine.

The Next Wave. Volume 19, Number 2

DTIC Science & Technology

2012-01-01

Afghanistan and other war zones/These are but two examples of what have become almost routine reports of failures in system security. Increasingly...and to describe what it might look like. Academic and industry experts from a broad set of disciplines including security, economics, human factors...Dusko Pavlovic from Oxford University provides a unique and unexpected model for security to reason about what a security science might be. Anupam

Making Sense of Federal Employment and Training Policy for Youth and Adults. Volume II: Expert Recommendations To Create a Comprehensive and Unified System.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Moore, Kristina M., Ed.; And Others

This document contains 27 essays and 5 policy statements regarding creation of a comprehensive and unified federal employment and training policy for youth and adults. The following essays are included: "In Search of the American Way" (Wills); "Rethink the Demand Side" (Smith); "The Federal Government as a Change Agent" (Nathan); "Making Sense of…

Abstract volume for the 2016 biennial meeting of the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory

USGS Publications Warehouse

Lowenstern, Jacob B.

2016-10-20

IntroductionEvery two years, scientists, natural resource managers, outreach specialists, and a variety of other interested parties get together for the biennial meeting of the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory (YVO). Each time, the theme varies. In past years, we have focused the meeting around topics including monitoring plans, emergency response, geodesy, and outreach. This year, we spent the first half-day devoted to recent research results, plans for upcoming studies, and geothermal monitoring. On the second day, our focus switched to eruption precursors, particularly as they apply to large caldera systems.Very few large explosive eruptions from caldera systems have taken place in recorded history. Therefore, there are few empirical data with which to characterize the nature of volcanic unrest that might precede eruptions with volcano explosivity index (VEI) of six or greater. For this reason, we set up a series of talks that explore what we know and don’t know about large eruptions. We performed an informal expert elicitation (a frequently used method to characterize expert opinion) with a small number of our colleagues, which served as the basis for a productive discussion session.This short volume of abstracts and extended abstracts provides a summary of the presentations made at the YVO meeting held in Mammoth Hot Springs, Wyoming, on May 10–11, 2016.

A scenario for a web-based radiation treatment planning structure: A new tool for quality assurance procedure?

PubMed

Kouloulias, V E; Ntasis, E; Poortmans, Ph; Maniatis, T A; Nikita, K S

2003-01-01

The desire to develop web-based platforms for remote collaboration among physicians and technologists is becoming a great challenge. In this paper we describe a web-based radiotherapy treatment planning (WBRTP) system to facilitate decentralized radiotherapy services by allowing remote treatment planning and quality assurance (QA) of treatment delivery. Significant prerequisites are digital storage of relevant data as well as efficient and reliable telecommunication system between collaborating units. The system of WBRTP includes video conferencing, display of medical images (CT scans, dose distributions etc), replication of selected data from a common database, remote treatment planning, evaluation of treatment technique and follow-up of the treated patients. Moreover the system features real-time remote operations in terms of tele-consulting like target volume delineation performed by a team of experts at different and distant units. An appraisal of its possibilities in quality assurance in radiotherapy is also discussed. As a conclusion, a WBRTP system would not only be a medium for communication between experts in oncology but mainly a tool for improving the QA in radiotherapy.

Enhanced training using the life support for trauma and transport (LSTAT)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hanson, Matthew E.; Toth, Louis S.; White, William H.

1999-07-01

The Life Support for Trauma and Transport (LSTAT) is an intensive care unit (ICU) in a 'stretcher' only 5 inches thick. LSTAT is a portable intensive care system which integrates state-of-the-art, commercial-off-the-shelf, hospital grade ICU devices into a single patient resuscitation, stabilization, evacuation, and surgical platform. LSTAT's current and evolving attributes include compact volume, low weight, integrated devices and subsystems, ergonomic patient-caregiver interface, patient and system information system, near-universal power interface, patient- caregiver hazardous environment isolation, and extensive evacuation vehicle interface compatibility. Although the LSTAT system architecture was established primarily to support diagnosis, monitoring and telemedicine consulting, the information architecture and communications suite can also support hosting training experiences and scenarios. The training scenario capabilities and features include: (1) moving training out to the field, (2) facilitating distributed training, (3) off-setting training with remote experts (or potentially embedded expert systems), and (4) facilitating training-by-simulation. Equipping the caregiver via such enhanced equipment and training should ultimately translate into better care for the patient.

An expert system for benzole recovery plant

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Ishiguro, H.; Matsumura, S.; Kawashima, A.

1993-01-01

In the By-Product Plant of NKK's Keihin Works, systematization efforts were made in 1988, including integration of the control rooms, introduction of computers and installation of automatic analyzers. This has however increased the burden on operators with a huge volume of data, and a delay in coping with an operational abnormality might expand risk and extent of damages. There is, on the other hand, a pressing need to take measures to accommodate sophisticated operations resulting from the pursuit of high productivity operation. For the purpose of avoiding these possible inconveniences, development of a real-time operation system has been tried inmore » an attempt to improve safety and operating techniques and productivity in the benzole recovery plant. An offline system based on manual entry of operating data for diagnosis of operation and abnormality was developed in 1990, and an online real-time system operating by incorporating real-time operating data was developed in 1991, which is now smoothly operating in commercial operations. This report presents an outline of the benzole recovery operation diagnosis control expert system.« less

Classification of microscopy images of Langerhans islets

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Å vihlík, Jan; Kybic, Jan; Habart, David; Berková, Zuzana; Girman, Peter; Kříž, Jan; Zacharovová, Klára

2014-03-01

Evaluation of images of Langerhans islets is a crucial procedure for planning an islet transplantation, which is a promising diabetes treatment. This paper deals with segmentation of microscopy images of Langerhans islets and evaluation of islet parameters such as area, diameter, or volume (IE). For all the available images, the ground truth and the islet parameters were independently evaluated by four medical experts. We use a pixelwise linear classifier (perceptron algorithm) and SVM (support vector machine) for image segmentation. The volume is estimated based on circle or ellipse fitting to individual islets. The segmentations were compared with the corresponding ground truth. Quantitative islet parameters were also evaluated and compared with parameters given by medical experts. We can conclude that accuracy of the presented fully automatic algorithm is fully comparable with medical experts.

Evaluation of automated decisionmaking methodologies and development of an integrated robotic system simulation. Volume 1: Study results

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lowrie, J. W.; Fermelia, A. J.; Haley, D. C.; Gremban, K. D.; Vanbaalen, J.; Walsh, R. W.

1982-01-01

A variety of artificial intelligence techniques which could be used with regard to NASA space applications and robotics were evaluated. The techniques studied were decision tree manipulators, problem solvers, rule based systems, logic programming languages, representation language languages, and expert systems. The overall structure of a robotic simulation tool was defined and a framework for that tool developed. Nonlinear and linearized dynamics equations were formulated for n link manipulator configurations. A framework for the robotic simulation was established which uses validated manipulator component models connected according to a user defined configuration.

Optical fiber sensors: Systems and applications. Volume 2

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Culshaw, Brian; Dakin, John

State-of-the-art fiber-optic (FO) sensors and their applications are described in chapters contributed by leading experts. Consideration is given to interferometers, FO gyros, intensity- and wavelength-based sensors and optical actuators, Si in FO sensors, point-sensor multiplexing principles, and distributed FO sensor systems. Also examined are chemical, biochemical, and medical sensors; physical and chemical sensors for process control; FO-sensor applications in the marine and aerospace industries; FO-sensor monitoring systems for security and safety, structural integrity, NDE, and the electric-power industry; and the market situation for FO-sensor technology. Diagrams, drawings, graphs, and photographs are provided.

FOSSIL2 energy policy model documentation: FOSSIL2 documentation

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

None

1980-10-01

This report discusses the structure, derivations, assumptions, and mathematical formulation of the FOSSIL2 model. Each major facet of the model - supply/demand interactions, industry financing, and production - has been designed to parallel closely the actual cause/effect relationships determining the behavior of the United States energy system. The data base for the FOSSIL2 program is large, as is appropriate for a system dynamics simulation model. When possible, all data were obtained from sources well known to experts in the energy field. Cost and resource estimates are based on DOE data whenever possible. This report presents the FOSSIL2 model at severalmore » levels. Volumes II and III of this report list the equations that comprise the FOSSIL2 model, along with variable definitions and a cross-reference list of the model variables. Volume II provides the model equations with each of their variables defined, while Volume III lists the equations, and a one line definition for equations, in a shorter, more readable format.« less

Atlas-based automatic measurements of the morphology of the tibiofemoral joint

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Brehler, M.; Thawait, G.; Shyr, W.; Ramsay, J.; Siewerdsen, J. H.; Zbijewski, W.

2017-03-01

Purpose: Anatomical metrics of the tibiofemoral joint support assessment of joint stability and surgical planning. We propose an automated, atlas-based algorithm to streamline the measurements in 3D images of the joint and reduce userdependence of the metrics arising from manual identification of the anatomical landmarks. Methods: The method is initialized with coarse registrations of a set of atlas images to the fixed input image. The initial registrations are then refined separately for the tibia and femur and the best matching atlas is selected. Finally, the anatomical landmarks of the best matching atlas are transformed onto the input image by deforming a surface model of the atlas to fit the shape of the tibial plateau in the input image (a mesh-to-volume registration). We apply the method to weight-bearing volumetric images of the knee obtained from 23 subjects using an extremity cone-beam CT system. Results of the automated algorithm were compared to an expert radiologist for measurements of Static Alignment (SA), Medial Tibial Slope (MTS) and Lateral Tibial Slope (LTS). Results: Intra-reader variability as high as 10% for LTS and 7% for MTS (ratio of standard deviation to the mean in repeated measurements) was found for expert radiologist, illustrating the potential benefits of an automated approach in improving the precision of the metrics. The proposed method achieved excellent registration of the atlas mesh to the input volumes. The resulting automated measurements yielded high correlations with expert radiologist, as indicated by correlation coefficients of 0.72 for MTS, 0.8 for LTS, and 0.89 for SA. Conclusions: The automated method for measurement of anatomical metrics of the tibiofemoral joint achieves high correlation with expert radiologist without the need for time consuming and error prone manual selection of landmarks.

Atlas-based automatic measurements of the morphology of the tibiofemoral joint.

PubMed

Brehler, M; Thawait, G; Shyr, W; Ramsay, J; Siewerdsen, J H; Zbijewski, W

2017-02-11

Anatomical metrics of the tibiofemoral joint support assessment of joint stability and surgical planning. We propose an automated, atlas-based algorithm to streamline the measurements in 3D images of the joint and reduce user-dependence of the metrics arising from manual identification of the anatomical landmarks. The method is initialized with coarse registrations of a set of atlas images to the fixed input image. The initial registrations are then refined separately for the tibia and femur and the best matching atlas is selected. Finally, the anatomical landmarks of the best matching atlas are transformed onto the input image by deforming a surface model of the atlas to fit the shape of the tibial plateau in the input image (a mesh-to-volume registration). We apply the method to weight-bearing volumetric images of the knee obtained from 23 subjects using an extremity cone-beam CT system. Results of the automated algorithm were compared to an expert radiologist for measurements of Static Alignment (SA), Medial Tibial Slope (MTS) and Lateral Tibial Slope (LTS). Intra-reader variability as high as ~10% for LTS and 7% for MTS (ratio of standard deviation to the mean in repeated measurements) was found for expert radiologist, illustrating the potential benefits of an automated approach in improving the precision of the metrics. The proposed method achieved excellent registration of the atlas mesh to the input volumes. The resulting automated measurements yielded high correlations with expert radiologist, as indicated by correlation coefficients of 0.72 for MTS, 0.8 for LTS, and 0.89 for SA. The automated method for measurement of anatomical metrics of the tibiofemoral joint achieves high correlation with expert radiologist without the need for time consuming and error prone manual selection of landmarks.

On the reproducibility of expert-operated and robotic ultrasound acquisitions.

PubMed

Kojcev, Risto; Khakzar, Ashkan; Fuerst, Bernhard; Zettinig, Oliver; Fahkry, Carole; DeJong, Robert; Richmon, Jeremy; Taylor, Russell; Sinibaldi, Edoardo; Navab, Nassir

2017-06-01

We present the evaluation of the reproducibility of measurements performed using robotic ultrasound imaging in comparison with expert-operated sonography. Robotic imaging for interventional procedures may be a valuable contribution, but requires reproducibility for its acceptance in clinical routine. We study this by comparing repeated measurements based on robotic and expert-operated ultrasound imaging. Robotic ultrasound acquisition is performed in three steps under user guidance: First, the patient is observed using a 3D camera on the robot end effector, and the user selects the region of interest. This allows for automatic planning of the robot trajectory. Next, the robot executes a sweeping motion following the planned trajectory, during which the ultrasound images and tracking data are recorded. As the robot is compliant, deviations from the path are possible, for instance due to patient motion. Finally, the ultrasound slices are compounded to create a volume. Repeated acquisitions can be performed automatically by comparing the previous and current patient surface. After repeated image acquisitions, the measurements based on acquisitions performed by the robotic system and expert are compared. Within our case series, the expert measured the anterior-posterior, longitudinal, transversal lengths of both of the left and right thyroid lobes on each of the 4 healthy volunteers 3 times, providing 72 measurements. Subsequently, the same procedure was performed using the robotic system resulting in a cumulative total of 144 clinically relevant measurements. Our results clearly indicated that robotic ultrasound enables more repeatable measurements. A robotic ultrasound platform leads to more reproducible data, which is of crucial importance for planning and executing interventions.

A brief history and technical review of the expert system research

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tan, Haocheng

2017-09-01

The expert system is a computer system that emulates the decision-making ability of a human expert, which aims to solve complex problems by reasoning knowledge. It is an important branch of artificial intelligence. In this paper, firstly, we briefly introduce the development and basic structure of the expert system. Then, from the perspective of the enabling technology, we classify the current expert systems and elaborate four expert systems: The Rule-Based Expert System, the Framework-Based Expert System, the Fuzzy Logic-Based Expert System and the Expert System Based on Neural Network.

Expert Systems: An Overview for Teacher-Librarians.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Orwig, Gary; Barron, Ann

1992-01-01

Provides an overview of expert systems for teacher librarians. Highlights include artificial intelligence and expert systems; the development of the MYCIN medical expert system; rule-based expert systems; the use of expert system shells to develop a specific system; and how to select an appropriate application for an expert system. (11 references)…

Living Expert System (LEXSYS). Volume 6

DTIC Science & Technology

1989-05-15

NOT CONSIDER A FAST MOVER A THREAT UNLESS YOU ARE THINKING ABOUT THE FLOT AREA. AWAY FROM THE FLOT DEFENSIVE ARRAY FIGHTERS HAVE THE LUXURY TO FLY...HIGHER, INCREASING THEIR RADAR COVERAGE AND DENYING YOUR EFFECTIVE USE OF MASKING. I WOULD AGREE THAT AROUND THE FLOT FIGHTERS ARE MOVING TO FAST AND...SAY THAT AFTER IT COMES OFF THE RAIL, COUNTERMEASURES ARE FEW AND FAR BETWEEN. IN DAYLIGHT, HIGH ANGLE STRAFE IS VERY EFFECTIVE AGAINST HELOS BECAUSE

Reduction in Unnecessary Clinical Laboratory Testing Through Utilization Management at a US Government Veterans Affairs Hospital.

PubMed

Konger, Raymond L; Ndekwe, Paul; Jones, Genea; Schmidt, Ronald P; Trey, Marty; Baty, Eric J; Wilhite, Denise; Munshi, Imtiaz A; Sutter, Bradley M; Rao, Maddamsetti; Bashir, Chowdry M

2016-03-01

To implement an electronic laboratory utilization management system (laboratory expert system [LES]) to provide safe and effective reductions in unnecessary clinical laboratory testing. The LES is a set of frequency filter subroutines within the Veterans Affairs hospital and laboratory information system that was formulated by an interdisciplinary medical team. Since implementing the LES, total test volume has decreased by a mean of 11.18% per year compared with our pre-LES test volume. This change was not attributable to fluctuations in outpatient visits or inpatient days of care. Laboratory cost savings were estimated at $151,184 and $163,751 for 2012 and 2013, respectively. A significant portion of these cost savings was attributable to reductions in high-volume, large panel testing. No adverse effects on patient care were reported, and mean length of stay for patients remained unchanged. Electronic laboratory utilization systems can effectively reduce unnecessary laboratory testing without compromising patient care. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Society for Clinical Pathology, 2016. This work is written by US Government employees and is in the public domain in the US.

A medical software system for volumetric analysis of cerebral pathologies in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data.

PubMed

Egger, Jan; Kappus, Christoph; Freisleben, Bernd; Nimsky, Christopher

2012-08-01

In this contribution, a medical software system for volumetric analysis of different cerebral pathologies in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data is presented. The software system is based on a semi-automatic segmentation algorithm and helps to overcome the time-consuming process of volume determination during monitoring of a patient. After imaging, the parameter settings-including a seed point-are set up in the system and an automatic segmentation is performed by a novel graph-based approach. Manually reviewing the result leads to reseeding, adding seed points or an automatic surface mesh generation. The mesh is saved for monitoring the patient and for comparisons with follow-up scans. Based on the mesh, the system performs a voxelization and volume calculation, which leads to diagnosis and therefore further treatment decisions. The overall system has been tested with different cerebral pathologies-glioblastoma multiforme, pituitary adenomas and cerebral aneurysms- and evaluated against manual expert segmentations using the Dice Similarity Coefficient (DSC). Additionally, intra-physician segmentations have been performed to provide a quality measure for the presented system.

Army Communicator. Volume 37, Number 3, Fall 2012

DTIC Science & Technology

2012-01-01

can our cyber defense experts be expected to stop every attack? Think of it like this: do you expect even the best goalie to stop every shot...responsibili- ties of network/system administrators and users. We are pulling Soldiers with IA skills because they understand what is happening in computer net...September 2010. This became a very unique situation in which we were not allowed to bring our CPN with us because of the GRF mission. We pulled all

Industrial based volume manufacturing of lightweight aluminium alloy panel components with high-strength and complex-shape for car body and chassis structures

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Anyasodor, Gerald; Koroschetz, Christian

2017-09-01

To achieve the high volume manufacture of lightweight passenger cars at economic cost as required in the automotive industry, low density materials and new process route will be needed. While high strength aluminium alloy grades: AA7075 and AA6082 may provide the alternative material solution, hot stamping process used for high-strength and ultrahigh strength steels such as boron steel 22mnb5 can enable the volume manufacture of panel components with high-strength and complex-shape for car body and chassis structures. These aluminium alloy grades can be used to manufacture panel components with possible yield strengths ≥ 500 MPa. Due to the differences in material behaviors, hot stamping process of 22mnb5 cannot be directly applied to high strength aluminium alloy grades. Despite recorded successes in laboratories, researches and niche hot forming processes of high strength aluminium alloy grades, not much have been achieved for adequate and efficient volume manufacturing system applicable in the automotive industry. Due to lack of such system and based on expert knowledge in hot stamping production-line, AP&T presents in this paper a hot stamping processing route for high strength aluminium alloys been suitable for production-line development and volume manufacturing.

The Oxford Handbook of Deaf Studies, Language, and Education, Volume 2

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Marschark, Marc, Ed.; Spencer, Patricia Elizabeth, Ed.

2010-01-01

"The Oxford Handbook of Deaf Studies, Language, and Education, Volume 2," is an updated edition of the landmark original volume. A range of international experts present a comprehensive overview of the field of deaf studies, language, and education. This area has grown dramatically over the past forty years. From work on the linguistics…

Technology of machine tools. Volume 4. Machine tool controls

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Not Available

1980-10-01

The Machine Tool Task Force (MTTF) was formed to characterize the state of the art of machine tool technology and to identify promising future directions of this technology. This volume is one of a five-volume series that presents the MTTF findings; reports on various areas of the technology were contributed by experts in those areas.

Technology of machine tools. Volume 3. Machine tool mechanics

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Tlusty, J.

1980-10-01

The Machine Tool Task Force (MTTF) was formed to characterize the state of the art of machine tool technology and to identify promising future directions of this technology. This volume is one of a five-volume series that presents the MTTF findings; reports on various areas of the technology were contributed by experts in those areas.

Technology of machine tools. Volume 5. Machine tool accuracy

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Hocken, R.J.

1980-10-01

The Machine Tool Task Force (MTTF) was formed to characterize the state of the art of machine tool technology and to identify promising future directions of this technology. This volume is one of a five-volume series that presents the MTTF findings; reports on various areas of the technology were contributed by experts in those areas.

Technology of machine tools. Volume 1. Executive summary

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Sutton, G.P.

1980-10-01

The Machine Tool Task Force (MTTF) was formed to characterize the state of the art of machine tool technology and to identify promising future directions of this technology. This volume is one of a five-volume series that presents the MTTF findings; reports on various areas of the technology were contributed by experts in those areas.

Networking of three dimensional sonography volume data.

PubMed

Kratochwil, A; Lee, A; Schoisswohl, A

2000-09-01

Three-dimensioned (3D) sonography enables the examiner to store, instead of copies from single B-scan planes, a volume consisting of 300 scan planes. The volume is displayed on a monitor in form of three orthogonal planes--longitudinal, axial and coronal. Translation and rotation facilitates anatomical orientation and provides any arbitrary plane within the volume to generate organ optimized scan planes. Different algorithms allow the extraction of different information such as surface, or bone structures by maximum mode, or fluid filled structures, such as vessels by the minimum mode. The volume may contain as well color information of vessels. The digitized information is stored on a magnetic optical disc. This allows virtual scanning in absence of the patient under the same conditions as the volume was primarily stored. The volume size is dependent on different, examiner-controlled settings. A volume may need a storage capacity between 2 and 16 MB of 8-bit gray level information. As such huge data sets are unsuitable for network transfer, data compression is of paramount interest. 100 stored volumes were submitted to JPEG, MPEG, and biorthogonal wavelet compression. The original and compressed volumes were randomly shown on two monitors. In case of noticeable image degradation, information on the location of the original and compressed volume and the ratio of compression was read. Numerical values for proving compression fidelity as pixel error calculation and computation of square root error have been unsuitable for evaluating image degradation. The best results in recognizing image degradation were achieved by image experts. The experts disagreed on the ratio where image degradation became visible in only 4% of the volumes. Wavelet compression ratios of 20:1 or 30:1 could be performed without discernible information reduction. The effect of volume compression is reflected both in the reduction of transfer time and in storage capacity. Transmission time for a volume of 6 MB using a normal telephone with a data flow of 56 kB/s was reduced from 14 min to 28 s at a compression rate of 30:1. Compression reduced storage requirements from 6 MB uncompressed to 200 kB at a compression rate of 30:1. This successful compression opens new possibilities of intra- and extra-hospital and global information for 3D sonography. The key to this communication is not only volume compression, but also the fact that the 3D examination can be simulated on any PC by the developed 3D software. PACS teleradiology using digitized radiographs transmitted over standard telephone lines. Systems in combination with the management systems of HIS and RIS are available for archiving, retrieval of images and reports and for local and global communication. This form of tele-medicine will have an impact on cost reduction in hospitals, reduction of transport costs. On this fundament worldwide education and multi-center studies becomes possible.

Proceedings of the Ship Control Systems Symposium (9th) Held in Bethesda, Maryland on 10-14 September 1990. Theme: Automation in Surface Ship Control Systems, Today’s Applications and Future Trends. Volume 2

DTIC Science & Technology

1990-09-14

residual fuel oil on board a ship (Ref 1,2), has indicated that expert systems are a very -powerful communications tool in that new developments ...characteristics of new designs will increase as will the need for more accurate methods to make those predictions. 2.152 4. PANEL H-10 DEVELOPMENT OF THE... New Y6ik Metropolitan Section, March 11, 1981. 7. Cojeen, H. P., Landsburg, A. C., MacFarlane, A. A., "One Approach to the Development and

An evaluation of computer assisted clinical classification algorithms.

PubMed

Chute, C G; Yang, Y; Buntrock, J

1994-01-01

The Mayo Clinic has a long tradition of indexing patient records in high resolution and volume. Several algorithms have been developed which promise to help human coders in the classification process. We evaluate variations on code browsers and free text indexing systems with respect to their speed and error rates in our production environment. The more sophisticated indexing systems save measurable time in the coding process, but suffer from incompleteness which requires a back-up system or human verification. Expert Network does the best job of rank ordering clinical text, potentially enabling the creation of thresholds for the pass through of computer coded data without human review.

Expert Systems: An Overview.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Adiga, Sadashiv

1984-01-01

Discusses: (1) the architecture of expert systems; (2) features that distinguish expert systems from conventional programs; (3) conditions necessary to select a particular application for the development of successful expert systems; (4) issues to be resolved when building expert systems; and (5) limitations. Examples of selected expert systems…

Impact of hospital and surgeon case volume on morbidity in colorectal endometriosis management: a plea to define criteria for expert centers.

PubMed

Bendifallah, Sofiane; Roman, Horace; Rubod, Chrystel; Leguevaque, Pierre; Watrelot, Antoine; Bourdel, Nicolas; Ballester, Marcos; Darai, Emile

2018-04-01

National and international guidelines recommend referring patients with severe forms of endometriosis to expert centers. However, there is a lack of clear criteria to define an expert center. We examined the roles of surgeon and hospital procedure volumes as determinants of morbidity in deep infiltrating endometriosis of the rectum and sigmoid colon (DIERS). We conducted a French retrospective multicenter study of hospital facilities performing colorectal surgery for DIERS in 2015. The primary end point was to analyze the relation between case volume and the incidence of complications. We estimated the optimal cut-off (OCO) determined by a minimal p-value approach. The study included 56 hospital facilities and collected data of 1135 cases of surgical management of colorectal endometriosis. The mean and median number of procedures per year and per surgeon were 9.17 and 5.58, respectively. The overall rate of grade III-V complication was 7.6% (82/1135). One grade V complication occurred. The rates of rectovaginal fistula, anastomotic leakage, pelvic abscess, and ureteral fistula were: 2.7% (31/1135), 0.79% (9/1135), 3.4% (39/1135), and 0.70% (8/1135), respectively. An OCO of 20 procedures per center and per year (p < 0.001) was defined. The OCO per surgeon and per year varied between seven (p = 0.007) and 13 procedures (p = 0.03). In a multivariate analysis, we found that only the volume of activity was independently correlated to complication outcomes (p = 0.0013). Our results contribute to providing objective morbidity data to determine criteria for defining expert centers for colorectal surgery for endometriosis.

Kidney volume measurement methods for clinical studies on autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease

PubMed Central

Sharma, Kanishka; Caroli, Anna; Quach, Le Van; Petzold, Katja; Bozzetto, Michela; Serra, Andreas L.; Remuzzi, Giuseppe; Remuzzi, Andrea

2017-01-01

Background In autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD), total kidney volume (TKV) is regarded as an important biomarker of disease progression and different methods are available to assess kidney volume. The purpose of this study was to identify the most efficient kidney volume computation method to be used in clinical studies evaluating the effectiveness of treatments on ADPKD progression. Methods and findings We measured single kidney volume (SKV) on two series of MR and CT images from clinical studies on ADPKD (experimental dataset) by two independent operators (expert and beginner), twice, using all of the available methods: polyline manual tracing (reference method), free-hand manual tracing, semi-automatic tracing, Stereology, Mid-slice and Ellipsoid method. Additionally, the expert operator also measured the kidney length. We compared different methods for reproducibility, accuracy, precision, and time required. In addition, we performed a validation study to evaluate the sensitivity of these methods to detect the between-treatment group difference in TKV change over one year, using MR images from a previous clinical study. Reproducibility was higher on CT than MR for all methods, being highest for manual and semiautomatic contouring methods (planimetry). On MR, planimetry showed highest accuracy and precision, while on CT accuracy and precision of both planimetry and Stereology methods were comparable. Mid-slice and Ellipsoid method, as well as kidney length were fast but provided only a rough estimate of kidney volume. The results of the validation study indicated that planimetry and Stereology allow using an importantly lower number of patients to detect changes in kidney volume induced by drug treatment as compared to other methods. Conclusions Planimetry should be preferred over fast and simplified methods for accurately monitoring ADPKD progression and assessing drug treatment effects. Expert operators, especially on MR images, are required for performing reliable estimation of kidney volume. The use of efficient TKV quantification methods considerably reduces the number of patients to enrol in clinical investigations, making them more feasible and significant. PMID:28558028

Using expert systems to implement a semantic data model of a large mass storage system

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Roelofs, Larry H.; Campbell, William J.

1990-01-01

The successful development of large volume data storage systems will depend not only on the ability of the designers to store data, but on the ability to manage such data once it is in the system. The hypothesis is that mass storage data management can only be implemented successfully based on highly intelligent meta data management services. There now exists a proposed mass store system standard proposed by the IEEE that addresses many of the issues related to the storage of large volumes of data, however, the model does not consider a major technical issue, namely the high level management of stored data. However, if the model were expanded to include the semantics and pragmatics of the data domain using a Semantic Data Model (SDM) concept, the result would be data that is expressive of the Intelligent Information Fusion (IIF) concept and also organized and classified in context to its use and purpose. The results are presented of a demonstration prototype SDM implemented using the expert system development tool NEXPERT OBJECT. In the prototype, a simple instance of a SDM was created to support a hypothetical application for the Earth Observing System, Data Information System (EOSDIS). The massive amounts of data that EOSDIS will manage requires the definition and design of a powerful information management system in order to support even the most basic needs of the project. The application domain is characterized by a semantic like network that represents the data content and the relationships between the data based on user views and the more generalized domain architectural view of the information world. The data in the domain are represented by objects that define classes, types and instances of the data. In addition, data properties are selectively inherited between parent and daughter relationships in the domain. Based on the SDM a simple information system design is developed from the low level data storage media, through record management and meta data management to the user interface.

Expert systems in civil engineering

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Kostem, C.N.; Maher, M.L.

1986-01-01

This book presents the papers given at a symposium on expert systems in civil engineering. Topics considered at the symposium included problem solving using expert system techniques, construction schedule analysis, decision making and risk analysis, seismic risk analysis systems, an expert system for inactive hazardous waste site characterization, an expert system for site selection, knowledge engineering, and knowledge-based expert systems in seismic analysis.

Space station automation of common module power management and distribution, volume 2

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ashworth, B.; Riedesel, J.; Myers, C.; Jakstas, L.; Smith, D.

1990-01-01

The new Space Station Module Power Management and Distribution System (SSM/PMAD) testbed automation system is described. The subjects discussed include testbed 120 volt dc star bus configuration and operation, SSM/PMAD automation system architecture, fault recovery and management expert system (FRAMES) rules english representation, the SSM/PMAD user interface, and the SSM/PMAD future direction. Several appendices are presented and include the following: SSM/PMAD interface user manual version 1.0, SSM/PMAD lowest level processor (LLP) reference, SSM/PMAD technical reference version 1.0, SSM/PMAD LLP visual control logic representation's (VCLR's), SSM/PMAD LLP/FRAMES interface control document (ICD) , and SSM/PMAD LLP switchgear interface controller (SIC) ICD.

Third International Symposium on Space Mission Operations and Ground Data Systems, part 2

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Rash, James L. (Editor)

1994-01-01

Under the theme of 'Opportunities in Ground Data Systems for High Efficiency Operations of Space Missions,' the SpaceOps '94 symposium included presentations of more than 150 technical papers spanning five topic areas: Mission Management, Operations, Data Management, System Development, and Systems Engineering. The symposium papers focus on improvements in the efficiency, effectiveness, and quality of data acquisition, ground systems, and mission operations. New technology, methods, and human systems are discussed. Accomplishments are also reported in the application of information systems to improve data retrieval, reporting, and archiving; the management of human factors; the use of telescience and teleoperations; and the design and implementation of logistics support for mission operations. This volume covers expert systems, systems development tools and approaches, and systems engineering issues.

Expert system application for the loading capability assessment of transmission lines

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Le, T.L.; Negnevitsky, M.; Piekutowski, M.

1995-11-01

This paper describes the application of an expert system for the evaluation of the short time thermal rating and temperature rise of overhead conductors. The expert system has been developed using a database and Leonardo expert system shell which is gaining popularity among commercial tools for developing expert system applications. The expert system has been found to compare well when evaluated against the site tests. A practical application is given to demonstrate the usefulness of the expert system developed.

FOSSIL2 energy policy model documentation: FOSSIL2 documentation

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

None

1980-10-01

This report discusses the structure, derivations, assumptions, and mathematical formulation of the FOSSIL2 model. Each major facet of the model - supply/demand interactions, industry financing, and production - has been designed to parallel closely the actual cause/effect relationships determining the behavior of the United States energy system. The data base for the FOSSIL2 program is large, as is appropriate for a system dynamics simulation model. When possible, all data were obtained from sources well known to experts in the energy field. Cost and resource estimates are based on DOE data whenever possible. This report presents the FOSSIL2 model at severalmore » levels. Volumes II and III of this report list the equations that comprise the FOSSIL2 model, along with variable definitions and a cross-reference list of the model variables. Volume III lists the model equations and a one line definition for equations, in a short, readable format.« less

Voxel-based morphometry in creative writers: Gray-matter increase in a prefronto-thalamic-cerebellar network.

PubMed

Neumann, Nicola; Domin, Martin; Erhard, Katharina; Lotze, Martin

2018-05-18

Continuous practice modulates those features of brain anatomy specifically associated with requirements of the respective training task. The current study aimed to highlight brain structural changes going along with long-term experience in creative writing. To this end, we investigated the gray-matter volume of 23 expert writers with voxel-based morphometry and compared it to 28 matched non-expert controls. Expert writers had higher gray-matter volume in the right superior frontal and middle frontal gyri (BA 9,10) as well as left middle frontal gyrus (BA 9, 10, 46), the bilateral medial dorsal nuclei of the thalamus and left posterior cerebellum. A regression analysis confirmed the association of enhanced gray-matter volume in the right superior frontal gyrus (BA 10) with practice index of writing. In region-of interest based regression analyses, we found associations of gray-matter volume in the right Broca's analogue (BA 44) and right primary visual cortex (BA 17) with creativity ratings of the texts written during scanning, but not with a standardized verbal creativity test. Creative writing thus seems to be strongly connected to a prefronto-thalamic-cerebellar network that supports the continuous generation, organization and revision of ideas that is necessary to write literary texts. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

Staffing Policies and Strategies; American Society for Personnel Administration Handbook of Personnel and Industrial Relations, Volume 1.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yoder, Dale, Ed.; Heneman, Herbert G., Jr., Ed.

Aimed at providing a broader understanding and appreciation of the mission and contributions of personnel management, the first volume of the seven volume handbook is authored by experts from industry, the public service, and the academic community. It is intended for both practitioners and students preparing for careers in personnel and…

Content validation of the operational definitions of the nursing diagnoses of activity intolerance, excess fluid volume, and decreased cardiac output in patients with heart failure.

PubMed

de Souza, Vanessa; Zeitoun, Sandra Salloum; Lopes, Camila Takao; de Oliveira, Ana Paula Dias; Lopes, Juliana de Lima; de Barros, Alba Lucia Botura Leite

2014-06-01

To consensually validate the operational definitions of the nursing diagnoses activity intolerance, excessive fluid volume, and decreased cardiac output in patients with decompensated heart failure. Consensual validation was performed in two stages: analogy by similarity of defining characteristics, and development of operational definitions and validation with experts. A total of 38 defining characteristics were found. Operational definitions were developed and content-validated. One hundred percent of agreement was achieved among the seven experts after five rounds. "Ascites" was added in the nursing diagnosis excessive fluid volume. The consensual validation improves interpretation of human response, grounding the selection of nursing interventions and contributing to improved nursing outcomes. Support the assessment of patients with decompensated heart failure. © 2013 NANDA International.

Applications of Artificial Intelligence to the Strategic Defense Initiative’s Battle Management/Command and Control Objective.

DTIC Science & Technology

1985-09-01

technology issue is expected to take years of research (20:11). According to Lt Gen James A. Abrahamson, director of the SDI organization heading up...from occurring (14:79). A Wqhite House Panel known as the (Dr. James ) Fletcher Defensive Technologies Study Group has pointed out that, in the past...Handbook of Artificial Intelligence. Volume I. Los Altos CA: WilliamKaufmann Inc., 1981. 5. Basden , Andrew. "On the Application of Expert Systems,N

Proceedings of Damping󈨝 Held in West Palm Beach, Florida on 8-10 February 1989. Volume 3. Pages ICA-1 through KDC-15)

DTIC Science & Technology

1989-11-01

Multidegree of Freedom Systems Dr. J. J. Gilheany FCC Optimization of Energy Dissipation Rate in Structures Prof. V. H. Neubert FCD *Not available for...gratefully appreciate the assistance of Art Rachild for his expert machining, John Haggerty for his assistance in ftbrication and Paul Juneau for...HOLOGRAPHIC INTERFEROETRY Paul R. Bernier Slawomir T. Fryska Christopher T. Griffen Ann Marie Revello General Motors Corporation Chevrolet-Pontiac-Canada

A Collection of Technical Studies Completed for the Computer-Aided Acquisition and Logistic Support (CALS) Program Fiscal Year 1988. Volume 1. Text, Security and Data Management

DTIC Science & Technology

1991-03-01

management methodologies claim to be "expert systems" with security intelligence built into them to I derive a body of both facts and speculative data ... Data Administration considerations . III -21 IV. ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE . .. .. .. . .. IV - 1 A. Description of Technologies . . . . . .. IV - 1 1...as intelligent gateways, wide area networks, and distributed databases for the distribution of logistics products. The integrity of CALS data and the

Northeast Artificial Intelligence Consortium (NAIC). Volume 3. The Versatile Maintenance Expert System (VMES)

DTIC Science & Technology

1990-12-01

expected values. However, because the same good /bad output pattern of a device always gives rise to the same initial ordering, the method has its limitation...For any device and good /bad output pattern, it is easy to come up with an example on which the method does poorly in the sense that the actual...submodule is hss likely to be faulty if it is connec d to more good primary outputs. Initially, candidates are ordered according to their relat -nships with

Program Manager: Journal of the Defense Systems Management College. Volume 20, Number 4, July-August 1991

DTIC Science & Technology

1991-08-01

national aritificial intelligence technologies, phase is intended to establish a stable headline news when front-line which are key to linking computer and... intelligence and S&T own alternative. communities. There are experts from Assembly of potential material the S&T community through contin- alternatives...cidents to SEC. i chief inform him that he am earlier work, Designing Defense intelligent cififrhitathIeS’ysterns, and adds the current spin of -FEI

CrossTalk: The Journal of Defense Software Engineering. Volume 26, Number 6, November/December 2013

DTIC Science & Technology

2013-12-01

requirements during sprint planning. Automated scanning, which includes automated code-review tools, allows the expert to monitor the system... sprint . This enables the validator to leverage the test results for formal validation and verification, and perform a shortened “hybrid” style of IV&V...per SPRINT (1-4 weeks) 1 week 1 Month Up to four months Ø Deliverable product to user Ø Security posture assessed Ø Accredited to field/operate

Analysis of a librarian-mediated literature search service.

PubMed

Friesen, Carol; Lê, Mê-Linh; Cooke, Carol; Raynard, Melissa

2015-01-01

Librarian-mediated literature searching is a key service provided at medical libraries. This analysis outlines ten years of data on 19,248 literature searches and describes information on the volume and frequency of search requests, time spent per search, databases used, and professional designations of the patron requestors. Combined with information on best practices for expert searching and evaluations of similar services, these findings were used to form recommendations on the improvement and standardization of a literature search service at a large health library system.

ANALYTiC: An Active Learning System for Trajectory Classification.

PubMed

Soares Junior, Amilcar; Renso, Chiara; Matwin, Stan

2017-01-01

The increasing availability and use of positioning devices has resulted in large volumes of trajectory data. However, semantic annotations for such data are typically added by domain experts, which is a time-consuming task. Machine-learning algorithms can help infer semantic annotations from trajectory data by learning from sets of labeled data. Specifically, active learning approaches can minimize the set of trajectories to be annotated while preserving good performance measures. The ANALYTiC web-based interactive tool visually guides users through this annotation process.

Planning, implementation and optimization of future space missions using an immersive visualization environment (IVE) machine

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nathan Harris, E.; Morgenthaler, George W.

2004-07-01

Beginning in 1995, a team of 3-D engineering visualization experts assembled at the Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company and began to develop innovative virtual prototyping simulation tools for performing ground processing and real-time visualization of design and planning of aerospace missions. At the University of Colorado, a team of 3-D visualization experts also began developing the science of 3-D visualization and immersive visualization at the newly founded British Petroleum (BP) Center for visualization, which began operations in October, 2001. BP acquired ARCO in the year 2000 and awarded the 3-D flexible IVE developed by ARCO (beginning in 1990) to the University of Colorado, CU, the winner in a competition among 6 Universities. CU then hired Dr. G. Dorn, the leader of the ARCO team as Center Director, and the other experts to apply 3-D immersive visualization to aerospace and to other University Research fields, while continuing research on surface interpretation of seismic data and 3-D volumes. This paper recounts further progress and outlines plans in Aerospace applications at Lockheed Martin and CU.

Improving sensor data analysis through diverse data source integration

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Casper, Jennifer; Albuquerque, Ronald; Hyland, Jeremy; Leveille, Peter; Hu, Jing; Cheung, Eddy; Mauer, Dan; Couture, Ronald; Lai, Barry

2009-05-01

Daily sensor data volumes are increasing from gigabytes to multiple terabytes. The manpower and resources needed to analyze the increasing amount of data are not growing at the same rate. Current volumes of diverse data, both live streaming and historical, are not fully analyzed. Analysts are left mostly to analyzing the individual data sources manually. This is both time consuming and mentally exhausting. Expanding data collections only exacerbate this problem. Improved data management techniques and analysis methods are required to process the increasing volumes of historical and live streaming data sources simultaneously. Improved techniques are needed to reduce an analysts decision response time and to enable more intelligent and immediate situation awareness. This paper describes the Sensor Data and Analysis Framework (SDAF) system built to provide analysts with the ability to pose integrated queries on diverse live and historical data sources, and plug in needed algorithms for upstream processing and filtering. The SDAF system was inspired by input and feedback from field analysts and experts. This paper presents SDAF's capabilities, implementation, and reasoning behind implementation decisions. Finally, lessons learned from preliminary tests and deployments are captured for future work.

C3I system modification and EMC (electromagnetic compatibility) methodology, volume 1

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wilson, J. L.; Jolly, M. B.

1984-01-01

A methodology (i.e., consistent set of procedures) for assessing the electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) of RF subsystem modifications on C3I aircraft was generated during this study (Volume 1). An IEMCAP (Intrasystem Electromagnetic Compatibility Analysis Program) database for the E-3A (AWACS) C3I aircraft RF subsystem was extracted to support the design of the EMC assessment methodology (Volume 2). Mock modifications were performed on the E-3A database to assess, using a preliminary form of the methodology, the resulting EMC impact. Application of the preliminary assessment methodology to modifications in the E-3A database served to fine tune the form of a final assessment methodology. The resulting final assessment methodology is documented in this report in conjunction with the overall study goals, procedures, and database. It is recommended that a similar EMC assessment methodology be developed for the power subsystem within C3I aircraft. It is further recommended that future EMC assessment methodologies be developed around expert systems (i.e., computer intelligent agents) to control both the excruciating detail and user requirement for transparency.

NESSUS/EXPERT - An expert system for probabilistic structural analysis methods

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Millwater, H.; Palmer, K.; Fink, P.

1988-01-01

An expert system (NESSUS/EXPERT) is presented which provides assistance in using probabilistic structural analysis methods. NESSUS/EXPERT is an interactive menu-driven expert system that provides information to assist in the use of the probabilistic finite element code NESSUS/FEM and the fast probability integrator. NESSUS/EXPERT was developed with a combination of FORTRAN and CLIPS, a C language expert system tool, to exploit the strengths of each language.

Evaluating Spatiotemporal Image Correlation Technology as a Tool for Training Nonexpert Sonographers to Perform Examinations of the Fetal Heart.

PubMed

Avnet, Hagai; Mazaaki, Eyal; Shen, Ori; Cohen, Sarah; Yagel, Simcha

2016-01-01

We aimed to evaluate the use of spatiotemporal image correlation (STIC) as a tool for training nonexpert examiners to perform screening examinations of the fetal heart by acquiring and examining STIC volumes according to a standardized questionnaire based on the 5 transverse planes of the fetal heart. We conducted a prospective study at 2 tertiary care centers. Two sonographers without formal training in fetal echocardiography received theoretical instruction on the 5 fetal echocardiographic transverse planes, as well as STIC technology. Only women with conditions allowing 4-dimensional STIC volume acquisitions (grayscale and Doppler) were included in the study. Acquired volumes were evaluated offline according to a standardized protocol that required the trainee to mark 30 specified structures on 5 required axial planes. Volumes were then reviewed by an expert examiner for quality of acquisition and correct identification of specified structures. Ninety-six of 112 pregnant women examined entered the study. Patients had singleton pregnancies between 20 and 32 weeks' gestation. After an initial learning curve of 20 examinations, trainees succeeded in identifying 97% to 98% of structures, with a highly significant degree of agreement with the expert's analysis (P < .001). A median of 2 STIC volumes for each examination was necessary for maximal structure identification. Acquisition quality scores were high (8.6-8.7 of a maximal score of 10) and were found to correlate with identification rates (P = .017). After an initial learning curve and under expert guidance, STIC is an excellent tool for trainees to master extended screening examinations of the fetal heart.

Collaborative volume visualization with applications to underwater acoustic signal processing

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jarvis, Susan; Shane, Richard T.

2000-08-01

Distributed collaborative visualization systems represent a technology whose time has come. Researchers at the Fraunhofer Center for Research in Computer Graphics have been working in the areas of collaborative environments and high-end visualization systems for several years. The medical application. TeleInVivo, is an example of a system which marries visualization and collaboration. With TeleInvivo, users can exchange and collaboratively interact with volumetric data sets in geographically distributed locations. Since examination of many physical phenomena produce data that are naturally volumetric, the visualization frameworks used by TeleInVivo have been extended for non-medical applications. The system can now be made compatible with almost any dataset that can be expressed in terms of magnitudes within a 3D grid. Coupled with advances in telecommunications, telecollaborative visualization is now possible virtually anywhere. Expert data quality assurance and analysis can occur remotely and interactively without having to send all the experts into the field. Building upon this point-to-point concept of collaborative visualization, one can envision a larger pooling of resources to form a large overview of a region of interest from contributions of numerous distributed members.

A novel computer-aided detection system for pulmonary nodule identification in CT images

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Han, Hao; Li, Lihong; Wang, Huafeng; Zhang, Hao; Moore, William; Liang, Zhengrong

2014-03-01

Computer-aided detection (CADe) of pulmonary nodules from computer tomography (CT) scans is critical for assisting radiologists to identify lung lesions at an early stage. In this paper, we propose a novel approach for CADe of lung nodules using a two-stage vector quantization (VQ) scheme. The first-stage VQ aims to extract lung from the chest volume, while the second-stage VQ is designed to extract initial nodule candidates (INCs) within the lung volume. Then rule-based expert filtering is employed to prune obvious FPs from INCs, and the commonly-used support vector machine (SVM) classifier is adopted to further reduce the FPs. The proposed system was validated on 100 CT scans randomly selected from the 262 scans that have at least one juxta-pleural nodule annotation in the publicly available database - Lung Image Database Consortium and Image Database Resource Initiative (LIDC-IDRI). The two-stage VQ only missed 2 out of the 207 nodules at agreement level 1, and the INCs detection for each scan took about 30 seconds in average. Expert filtering reduced FPs more than 18 times, while maintaining a sensitivity of 93.24%. As it is trivial to distinguish INCs attached to pleural wall versus not on wall, we investigated the feasibility of training different SVM classifiers to further reduce FPs from these two kinds of INCs. Experiment results indicated that SVM classification over the entire set of INCs was in favor of, where the optimal operating of our CADe system achieved a sensitivity of 89.4% at a specificity of 86.8%.

Expert Consensus Contouring Guidelines for Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy in Esophageal and Gastroesophageal Junction Cancer.

PubMed

Wu, Abraham J; Bosch, Walter R; Chang, Daniel T; Hong, Theodore S; Jabbour, Salma K; Kleinberg, Lawrence R; Mamon, Harvey J; Thomas, Charles R; Goodman, Karyn A

2015-07-15

Current guidelines for esophageal cancer contouring are derived from traditional 2-dimensional fields based on bony landmarks, and they do not provide sufficient anatomic detail to ensure consistent contouring for more conformal radiation therapy techniques such as intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT). Therefore, we convened an expert panel with the specific aim to derive contouring guidelines and generate an atlas for the clinical target volume (CTV) in esophageal or gastroesophageal junction (GEJ) cancer. Eight expert academically based gastrointestinal radiation oncologists participated. Three sample cases were chosen: a GEJ cancer, a distal esophageal cancer, and a mid-upper esophageal cancer. Uniform computed tomographic (CT) simulation datasets and accompanying diagnostic positron emission tomographic/CT images were distributed to each expert, and the expert was instructed to generate gross tumor volume (GTV) and CTV contours for each case. All contours were aggregated and subjected to quantitative analysis to assess the degree of concordance between experts and to generate draft consensus contours. The panel then refined these contours to generate the contouring atlas. The κ statistics indicated substantial agreement between panelists for each of the 3 test cases. A consensus CTV atlas was generated for the 3 test cases, each representing common anatomic presentations of esophageal cancer. The panel agreed on guidelines and principles to facilitate the generalizability of the atlas to individual cases. This expert panel successfully reached agreement on contouring guidelines for esophageal and GEJ IMRT and generated a reference CTV atlas. This atlas will serve as a reference for IMRT contours for clinical practice and prospective trial design. Subsequent patterns of failure analyses of clinical datasets using these guidelines may require modification in the future. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Expert Consensus Contouring Guidelines for Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy in Esophageal and Gastroesophageal Junction Cancer

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Wu, Abraham J., E-mail: wua@mskcc.org; Bosch, Walter R.; Chang, Daniel T.

Purpose/Objective(s): Current guidelines for esophageal cancer contouring are derived from traditional 2-dimensional fields based on bony landmarks, and they do not provide sufficient anatomic detail to ensure consistent contouring for more conformal radiation therapy techniques such as intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT). Therefore, we convened an expert panel with the specific aim to derive contouring guidelines and generate an atlas for the clinical target volume (CTV) in esophageal or gastroesophageal junction (GEJ) cancer. Methods and Materials: Eight expert academically based gastrointestinal radiation oncologists participated. Three sample cases were chosen: a GEJ cancer, a distal esophageal cancer, and a mid-upper esophagealmore » cancer. Uniform computed tomographic (CT) simulation datasets and accompanying diagnostic positron emission tomographic/CT images were distributed to each expert, and the expert was instructed to generate gross tumor volume (GTV) and CTV contours for each case. All contours were aggregated and subjected to quantitative analysis to assess the degree of concordance between experts and to generate draft consensus contours. The panel then refined these contours to generate the contouring atlas. Results: The κ statistics indicated substantial agreement between panelists for each of the 3 test cases. A consensus CTV atlas was generated for the 3 test cases, each representing common anatomic presentations of esophageal cancer. The panel agreed on guidelines and principles to facilitate the generalizability of the atlas to individual cases. Conclusions: This expert panel successfully reached agreement on contouring guidelines for esophageal and GEJ IMRT and generated a reference CTV atlas. This atlas will serve as a reference for IMRT contours for clinical practice and prospective trial design. Subsequent patterns of failure analyses of clinical datasets using these guidelines may require modification in the future.« less

Actes des Journees de linguistique (Proceedings of the Linguistics Conference) (14th, Quebec, Canada, March 23-24, 2000).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Perron, Veronique, Ed.

Papers on language research in this volume include the following: Phonetique ou phonologie: le chva dans les emprunts anglais en portugais (Phonetics or Phonology: The Schwa in English Loan Words to Portuguese) (Pascale Belanger); NewsExpert: exemple de l'application de la linguistique informatique a Internet (NewsExpert: An Example of Its…

Using expert knowledge in landscape ecology [Book review

Treesearch

Eric J. Gustafson

2013-01-01

This volume perfectly illustrates the truism—"we don't know what it is that we don't know." I have been a landscape ecologist for over 20 years, and have even used expert knowledge many times in my own research. Yet I learned something profoundly new in almost every chapter of this collection of primers and case studies focused on the use...

Increased cerebellar gray matter volume in head chefs.

PubMed

Cerasa, Antonio; Sarica, Alessia; Martino, Iolanda; Fabbricatore, Carmelo; Tomaiuolo, Francesco; Rocca, Federico; Caracciolo, Manuela; Quattrone, Aldo

2017-01-01

Chefs exert expert motor and cognitive performances on a daily basis. Neuroimaging has clearly shown that that long-term skill learning (i.e., athletes, musicians, chess player or sommeliers) induces plastic changes in the brain thus enabling tasks to be performed faster and more accurately. How a chef's expertise is embodied in a specific neural network has never been investigated. Eleven Italian head chefs with long-term brigade management expertise and 11 demographically-/ psychologically- matched non-experts underwent morphological evaluations. Voxel-based analysis performed with SUIT, as well as, automated volumetric measurement assessed with Freesurfer, revealed increased gray matter volume in the cerebellum in chefs compared to non-experts. The most significant changes were detected in the anterior vermis and the posterior cerebellar lobule. The magnitude of the brigade staff and the higher performance in the Tower of London test correlated with these specific gray matter increases, respectively. We found that chefs are characterized by an anatomical variability involving the cerebellum. This confirms the role of this region in the development of similar expert brains characterized by learning dexterous skills, such as pianists, rock climbers and basketball players. However, the nature of the cellular events underlying the detected morphological differences remains an open question.

PCLIPS: Parallel CLIPS

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gryphon, Coranth D.; Miller, Mark D.

1991-01-01

PCLIPS (Parallel CLIPS) is a set of extensions to the C Language Integrated Production System (CLIPS) expert system language. PCLIPS is intended to provide an environment for the development of more complex, extensive expert systems. Multiple CLIPS expert systems are now capable of running simultaneously on separate processors, or separate machines, thus dramatically increasing the scope of solvable tasks within the expert systems. As a tool for parallel processing, PCLIPS allows for an expert system to add to its fact-base information generated by other expert systems, thus allowing systems to assist each other in solving a complex problem. This allows individual expert systems to be more compact and efficient, and thus run faster or on smaller machines.

ART-Ada: An Ada-based expert system tool

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lee, S. Daniel; Allen, Bradley P.

1990-01-01

The Department of Defense mandate to standardize on Ada as the language for software systems development has resulted in an increased interest in making expert systems technology readily available in Ada environments. NASA's Space Station Freedom is an example of the large Ada software development projects that will require expert systems in the 1990's. Another large scale application that can benefit from Ada based expert system tool technology is the Pilot's Associate (PA) expert system project for military combat aircraft. The Automated Reasoning Tool-Ada (ART-Ada), an Ada expert system tool, is explained. ART-Ada allows applications of a C-based expert system tool called ART-IM to be deployed in various Ada environments. ART-Ada is being used to implement several prototype expert systems for NASA's Space Station Freedom program and the U.S. Air Force.

ART-Ada: An Ada-based expert system tool

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lee, S. Daniel; Allen, Bradley P.

1991-01-01

The Department of Defense mandate to standardize on Ada as the language for software systems development has resulted in increased interest in making expert systems technology readily available in Ada environments. NASA's Space Station Freedom is an example of the large Ada software development projects that will require expert systems in the 1990's. Another large scale application that can benefit from Ada based expert system tool technology is the Pilot's Associate (PA) expert system project for military combat aircraft. Automated Reasoning Tool (ART) Ada, an Ada Expert system tool is described. ART-Ada allow applications of a C-based expert system tool called ART-IM to be deployed in various Ada environments. ART-Ada is being used to implement several prototype expert systems for NASA's Space Station Freedom Program and the U.S. Air Force.

International Space Station (ISS) Anomalies Trending Study. Volume II; Appendices

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Beil, Robert J.; Brady, Timothy K.; Foster, Delmar C.; Graber, Robert R.; Malin, Jane T.; Thornesbery, Carroll G.; Throop, David R.

2015-01-01

The NASA Engineering and Safety Center (NESC) set out to utilize data mining and trending techniques to review the anomaly history of the International Space Station (ISS) and provide tools for discipline experts not involved with the ISS Program to search anomaly data to aid in identification of areas that may warrant further investigation. Additionally, the assessment team aimed to develop an approach and skillset for integrating data sets, with the intent of providing an enriched data set for discipline experts to investigate that is easier to navigate, particularly in light of ISS aging and the plan to extend its life into the late 2020s. This document contains the Appendices to the Volume I report.

Porting a Mental Expert System to a Mainstream Programming Environment

PubMed Central

Jao, Chiang S.; Hier, Daniel B.; Dollear, Winifred; Fu, Wenying

2001-01-01

Expert systems are increasingly being applied to problems in medical diagnosis and treatment. Initial medical expert systems were programmed in specialized “expert system” shell programming environments. As the power of mainstream programming languages has increased, it has become possible to implement medical expert systems within these mainstream languages. We originally implemented an expert system to record and score the mental status examination utilizing a specialized expert system programming environment. We have now ported that application to a mainstream programming environment without losing any functionality of an accurate and comprehensive diagnostic tool. New system supplements the need of normative consultation report and offline reference library to the traditional patient care system.

An expert system for the design of heating, ventilating, and air-conditioning systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Camejo, Pedro Jose

1989-12-01

Expert systems are computer programs that seek to mimic human reason. An expert system shelf, a software program commonly used for developing expert systems in a relatively short time, was used to develop a prototypical expert system for the design of heating, ventilating, and air-conditioning (HVAC) systems in buildings. Because HVAC design involves several related knowledge domains, developing an expert system for HVAC design requires the integration of several smaller expert systems known as knowledge bases. A menu program and several auxiliary programs for gathering data, completing calculations, printing project reports, and passing data between the knowledge bases are needed and have been developed to join the separate knowledge bases into one simple-to-use program unit.

Proving and Improving. Volume ll: Tools and Techniques for Assessing the First College Year. The First-Year Experience Monograph Series No. 37

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Swing, Randy L., Ed.

2004-01-01

This second volume of "Proving and Improving" collects essays from the First-Year Assessment Listserv, which is hosted by the Policy Center on the First Year of College and the National Resource Center. Like the first volume, this one brings together the nation's leading experts and practitioners of assessment in the first college year. They offer…

Data and Model Integration Promoting Interdisciplinarity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Koike, T.

2014-12-01

It is very difficult to reflect accumulated subsystem knowledge into holistic knowledge. Knowledge about a whole system can rarely be introduced into a targeted subsystem. In many cases, knowledge in one discipline is inapplicable to other disciplines. We are far from resolving cross-disciplinary issues. It is critically important to establish interdisciplinarity so that scientific knowledge can transcend disciplines. We need to share information and develop knowledge interlinkages by building models and exchanging tools. We need to tackle a large increase in the volume and diversity of data from observing the Earth. The volume of data stored has exponentially increased. Previously, almost all of the large-volume data came from satellites, but model outputs occupy the largest volume in general. To address the large diversity of data, we should develop an ontology system for technical and geographical terms in coupling with a metadata design according to international standards. In collaboration between Earth environment scientists and IT group, we should accelerate data archiving by including data loading, quality checking and metadata registration, and enrich data-searching capability. DIAS also enables us to perform integrated research and realize interdisciplinarity. For example, climate change should be addressed in collaboration between the climate models, integrated assessment models including energy, economy, agriculture, health, and the models of adaptation, vulnerability, and human settlement and infrastructure. These models identify water as central to these systems. If a water expert can develop an interrelated system including each component, the integrated crisis can be addressed by collaboration with various disciplines. To realize this purpose, we are developing a water-related data- and model-integration system called a water cycle integrator (WCI).

MARBLE: A system for executing expert systems in parallel

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Myers, Leonard; Johnson, Coe; Johnson, Dean

1990-01-01

This paper details the MARBLE 2.0 system which provides a parallel environment for cooperating expert systems. The work has been done in conjunction with the development of an intelligent computer-aided design system, ICADS, by the CAD Research Unit of the Design Institute at California Polytechnic State University. MARBLE (Multiple Accessed Rete Blackboard Linked Experts) is a system of C Language Production Systems (CLIPS) expert system tool. A copied blackboard is used for communication between the shells to establish an architecture which supports cooperating expert systems that execute in parallel. The design of MARBLE is simple, but it provides support for a rich variety of configurations, while making it relatively easy to demonstrate the correctness of its parallel execution features. In its most elementary configuration, individual CLIPS expert systems execute on their own processors and communicate with each other through a modified blackboard. Control of the system as a whole, and specifically of writing to the blackboard is provided by one of the CLIPS expert systems, an expert control system.

Psychology of developing and designing expert systems

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Tonn, B.; MacGregor, D.

This paper discusses psychological problems relevant to developing and designing expert systems. With respect to the former, the psychological literature suggests that several cognitive biases may affect the elicitation of a valid knowledge base from the expert. The literature also suggests that common expert system inference engines may be quite inconsistent with reasoning heuristics employed by experts. With respect to expert system user interfaces, care should be taken when eliciting uncertainty estimates from users, presenting system conclusions, and ordering questions.

Processes in construction of failure management expert systems from device design information

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Malin, Jane T.; Lance, Nick

1987-01-01

This paper analyzes the tasks and problem solving methods used by an engineer in constructing a failure management expert system from design information about the device to te diagnosed. An expert test engineer developed a trouble-shooting expert system based on device design information and experience with similar devices, rather than on specific expert knowledge gained from operating the device or troubleshooting its failures. The construction of the expert system was intensively observed and analyzed. This paper characterizes the knowledge, tasks, methods, and design decisions involved in constructing this type of expert system, and makes recommendations concerning tools for aiding and automating construction of such systems.

Testing expert systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Chang, C. L.; Stachowitz, R. A.

1988-01-01

Software quality is of primary concern in all large-scale expert system development efforts. Building appropriate validation and test tools for ensuring software reliability of expert systems is therefore required. The Expert Systems Validation Associate (EVA) is a validation system under development at the Lockheed Artificial Intelligence Center. EVA provides a wide range of validation and test tools to check correctness, consistency, and completeness of an expert system. Testing a major function of EVA. It means executing an expert system with test cases with the intent of finding errors. In this paper, we describe many different types of testing such as function-based testing, structure-based testing, and data-based testing. We describe how appropriate test cases may be selected in order to perform good and thorough testing of an expert system.

Real Time Data System (RTDS)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Muratore, John F.

1991-01-01

Lessons learned from operational real time expert systems are examined. The basic system architecture is discussed. An expert system is any software that performs tasks to a standard that would normally require a human expert. An expert system implies knowledge contained in data rather than code. And an expert system implies the use of heuristics as well as algorithms. The 15 top lessons learned by the operation of a real time data system are presented.

Can Schools Save Indigenous Languages? Policy and Practice on Four Continents: Palgrave Studies in Minority Languages and Communities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hornberger, Nancy H., Ed.

2010-01-01

This volume offers a close look at four cases of indigenous language revitalization: Maori in Aotearoa/New Zealand, Sami in Scandinavia, Hnahno in Mexico and Quechua and other indigenous languages in Latin America. Essays by experts from each case are in turn discussed in international perspective by four counterpart experts. This book is divided…

Expert systems applications for space shuttle payload integration automation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Morris, Keith

1988-01-01

Expert systems technologies have been and are continuing to be applied to NASA's Space Shuttle orbiter payload integration problems to provide a level of automation previously unrealizable. NASA's Space Shuttle orbiter was designed to be extremely flexible in its ability to accommodate many different types and combinations of satellites and experiments (payloads) within its payload bay. This flexibility results in differnet and unique engineering resource requirements for each of its payloads, creating recurring payload and cargo integration problems. Expert systems provide a successful solution for these recurring problems. The Orbiter Payload Bay Cabling Expert (EXCABL) was the first expert system, developed to solve the electrical services provisioning problem. A second expert system, EXMATCH, was developed to generate a list of the reusable installation drawings available for each EXCABL solution. These successes have proved the applicability of expert systems technologies to payload integration problems and consequently a third expert system is currently in work. These three expert systems, the manner in which they resolve payload problems and how they will be integrated are described.

Exercise Prescription in Patients with Different Combinations of Cardiovascular Disease Risk Factors: A Consensus Statement from the EXPERT Working Group.

PubMed

Hansen, Dominique; Niebauer, Josef; Cornelissen, Veronique; Barna, Olga; Neunhäuserer, Daniel; Stettler, Christoph; Tonoli, Cajsa; Greco, Eugenio; Fagard, Robert; Coninx, Karin; Vanhees, Luc; Piepoli, Massimo F; Pedretti, Roberto; Ruiz, Gustavo Rovelo; Corrà, Ugo; Schmid, Jean-Paul; Davos, Constantinos H; Edelmann, Frank; Abreu, Ana; Rauch, Bernhard; Ambrosetti, Marco; Braga, Simona Sarzi; Beckers, Paul; Bussotti, Maurizio; Faggiano, Pompilio; Garcia-Porrero, Esteban; Kouidi, Evangelia; Lamotte, Michel; Reibis, Rona; Spruit, Martijn A; Takken, Tim; Vigorito, Carlo; Völler, Heinz; Doherty, Patrick; Dendale, Paul

2018-05-04

Whereas exercise training is key in the management of patients with cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk (obesity, diabetes, dyslipidaemia, hypertension), clinicians experience difficulties in how to optimally prescribe exercise in patients with different CVD risk factors. Therefore, a consensus statement for state-of-the-art exercise prescription in patients with combinations of CVD risk factors as integrated into a digital training and decision support system (the EXercise Prescription in Everyday practice & Rehabilitative Training (EXPERT) tool) needed to be established. EXPERT working group members systematically reviewed the literature for meta-analyses, systematic reviews and/or clinical studies addressing exercise prescriptions in specific CVD risk factors and formulated exercise recommendations (exercise training intensity, frequency, volume and type, session and programme duration) and exercise safety precautions, for obesity, arterial hypertension, type 1 and 2 diabetes, and dyslipidaemia. The impact of physical fitness, CVD risk altering medications and adverse events during exercise testing was further taken into account to fine-tune this exercise prescription. An algorithm, supported by the interactive EXPERT tool, was developed by Hasselt University based on these data. Specific exercise recommendations were formulated with the aim to decrease adipose tissue mass, improve glycaemic control and blood lipid profile, and lower blood pressure. The impact of medications to improve CVD risk, adverse events during exercise testing and physical fitness was also taken into account. Simulations were made of how the EXPERT tool provides exercise prescriptions according to the variables provided. In this paper, state-of-the-art exercise prescription to patients with combinations of CVD risk factors is formulated, and it is shown how the EXPERT tool may assist clinicians. This contributes to an appropriately tailored exercise regimen for every CVD risk patient.

Expert system technology

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Prince, Mary Ellen

1987-01-01

The expert system is a computer program which attempts to reproduce the problem-solving behavior of an expert, who is able to view problems from a broad perspective and arrive at conclusions rapidly, using intuition, shortcuts, and analogies to previous situations. Expert systems are a departure from the usual artificial intelligence approach to problem solving. Researchers have traditionally tried to develop general modes of human intelligence that could be applied to many different situations. Expert systems, on the other hand, tend to rely on large quantities of domain specific knowledge, much of it heuristic. The reasoning component of the system is relatively simple and straightforward. For this reason, expert systems are often called knowledge based systems. The report expands on the foregoing. Section 1 discusses the architecture of a typical expert system. Section 2 deals with the characteristics that make a problem a suitable candidate for expert system solution. Section 3 surveys current technology, describing some of the software aids available for expert system development. Section 4 discusses the limitations of the latter. The concluding section makes predictions of future trends.

Expert system for the design of heating, ventilating, and air-conditioning systems. Master's thesis

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Camejo, P.J.

1989-12-01

Expert systems are computer programs that seek to mimic human reason. An expert system shelf, a software program commonly used for developing expert systems in a relatively short time, was used to develop a prototypical expert system for the design of heating, ventilating, and air-conditioning (HVAC) systems in buildings. Because HVAC design involves several related knowledge domains, developing an expert system for HVAC design requires the integration of several smaller expert systems known as knowledge bases. A menu program and several auxiliary programs for gathering data, completing calculations, printing project reports, and passing data between the knowledge bases are neededmore » and have been developed to join the separate knowledge bases into one simple-to-use program unit.« less

The Jossey-Bass Reader on Contemporary Issues in Adult Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Merriam, Sharan B., Ed.; Grace, Andre P., Ed.

2011-01-01

With contributions from leading experts in the field, The Jossey-Bass Reader on Contemporary Issues in Adult Education collects in one volume the best previously published literature on the issues and trends affecting adult education today. The volume includes influential pieces from foundational authors in the profession such as Eduard C.…

Techniques in Marriage and Family Counseling, Volume Two. The Family Psychology and Counseling Series.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Watts, Richard E., Ed.

This volume presents a collection of practical strategies for enhancing communication between couples and families. Experts in the field outline proven techniques from cognitive and constructivist/constructionist frameworks, structural and strategic orientations, and couple/family play therapy. Chapters are: (1) "Letter for a Change: Using Letter…

Out-of-the-Box Leadership. The Soul of Educational Leadership Series. Volume 2

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Houston, Paul D., Ed.; Blankstein, Alan M., Ed.; Cole, Robert W., Ed.

2007-01-01

In this second volume of "The Soul of Educational Leadership" series, editors Paul D. Houston, Alan M. Blankstein, and Robert W. Cole offer creative perspectives on the challenges of reframing leadership practice. Presenting key strategies from leadership experts such as Thomas Sergiovanni and Dennis Sparks, this compact resource combines…

Engineering monitoring expert system's developer

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lo, Ching F.

1991-01-01

This research project is designed to apply artificial intelligence technology including expert systems, dynamic interface of neural networks, and hypertext to construct an expert system developer. The developer environment is specifically suited to building expert systems which monitor the performance of ground support equipment for propulsion systems and testing facilities. The expert system developer, through the use of a graphics interface and a rule network, will be transparent to the user during rule constructing and data scanning of the knowledge base. The project will result in a software system that allows its user to build specific monitoring type expert systems which monitor various equipments used for propulsion systems or ground testing facilities and accrues system performance information in a dynamic knowledge base.

Advanced piloted aircraft flight control system design methodology. Volume 2: The FCX flight control design expert system

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Myers, Thomas T.; Mcruer, Duane T.

1988-01-01

The development of a comprehensive and electric methodology for conceptual and preliminary design of flight control systems is presented and illustrated. The methodology is focused on the design states starting with the layout of system requirements and ending when some viable competing system architectures (feedback control structures) are defined. The approach is centered on the human pilot and the aircraft as both the sources of, and the keys to the solution of, many flight control problems. The methodology relies heavily on computational procedures which are highly interactive with the design engineer. To maximize effectiveness, these techniques, as selected and modified to be used together in the methodology, form a cadre of computational tools specifically tailored for integrated flight control system preliminary design purposes. The FCX expert system as presently developed is only a limited prototype capable of supporting basic lateral-directional FCS design activities related to the design example used. FCX presently supports design of only one FCS architecture (yaw damper plus roll damper) and the rules are largely focused on Class IV (highly maneuverable) aircraft. Despite this limited scope, the major elements which appear necessary for application of knowledge-based software concepts to flight control design were assembled and thus FCX represents a prototype which can be tested, critiqued and evolved in an ongoing process of development.

Expert systems built by the Expert: An evaluation of OPS5

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Jackson, Robert

1987-01-01

Two expert systems were written in OPS5 by the expert, a Ph.D. astronomer with no prior experience in artificial intelligence or expert systems, without the use of a knowledge engineer. The first system was built from scratch and uses 146 rules to check for duplication of scientific information within a pool of prospective observations. The second system was grafted onto another expert system and uses 149 additional rules to estimate the spacecraft and ground resources consumed by a set of prospective observations. The small vocabulary, the IF this occurs THEN do that logical structure of OPS5, and the ability to follow program execution allowed the expert to design and implement these systems with only the data structures and rules of another OPS5 system as an example. The modularity of the rules in OPS5 allowed the second system to modify the rulebase of the system onto which it was grafted without changing the code or the operation of that system. These experiences show that experts are able to develop their own expert systems due to the ease of programming and code reusability in OPS5.

Artificial intelligence and space power systems automation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Weeks, David J.

1987-01-01

Various applications of artificial intelligence to space electrical power systems are discussed. An overview is given of completed, on-going, and planned knowledge-based system activities. These applications include the Nickel-Cadmium Battery Expert System (NICBES) (the expert system interfaced with the Hubble Space Telescope electrical power system test bed); the early work with the Space Station Experiment Scheduler (SSES); the three expert systems under development in the space station advanced development effort in the core module power management and distribution system test bed; planned cooperation of expert systems in the Core Module Power Management and Distribution (CM/PMAD) system breadboard with expert systems for the space station at other research centers; and the intelligent data reduction expert system under development.

Defense Small Business Innovation Research Program (SBIR). Volume 4. Defense Agency Projects, Abstracts of Phase 1 Awards from FY 1989 SBIR Solicitation

DTIC Science & Technology

1990-04-01

EXPLOSIVE ACTIVITY . FINDINGS AND MEASUREMENTS FROM EACH IMAGE WILL BE COMBINED IN A GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION DATA BASE . VARIOUS IMAGE AND MAP PROJECTS WILL BE...PROPOSAL OF LAND MINES DETECTION BY A NUCLEAR ACTIVATION METHOD IS BASED ON A NEW EXTREMELY INTENSE, COMPACT PULSED SOURCE OF 14.1 MeV NEUTRONS (WITH A...CONVENTIONAL KNOWLEDGE- BASED SYSTEMS TOPIC# 38 OFFICE: PM/SBIR IDENT#: 33862 CASE- BASED REASONING (CBR) REPRESENTS A POWERFUL NEW PARADIGM FOR BUILDING EXPERT

Considerations in development of expert systems for real-time space applications

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Murugesan, S.

1988-01-01

Over the years, demand on space systems has increased tremendously and this trend will continue for the near future. Enhanced capabilities of space systems, however, can only be met with increased complexity and sophistication of onboard and ground systems. Artificial Intelligence and expert system techniques have great potential in space applications. Expert systems could facilitate autonomous decision making, improve in-orbit fault diagnosis and repair, enhance performance and reduce reliance on ground support. However, real-time expert systems, unlike conventional off-line consultative systems, have to satisfy certain special stringent requirements before they could be used for onboard space applications. Challenging and interesting new environments are faced while developing expert system space applications. This paper discusses the special characteristics, requirements and typical life cycle issues for onboard expert systems. Further, it also describes considerations in design, development, and implementation which are particularly important to real-time expert systems for space applications.

An hierarchical approach to performance evaluation of expert systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Dominick, Wayne D. (Editor); Kavi, Srinu

1985-01-01

The number and size of expert systems is growing rapidly. Formal evaluation of these systems - which is not performed for many systems - increases the acceptability by the user community and hence their success. Hierarchical evaluation that had been conducted for computer systems is applied for expert system performance evaluation. Expert systems are also evaluated by treating them as software systems (or programs). This paper reports many of the basic concepts and ideas in the Performance Evaluation of Expert Systems Study being conducted at the University of Southwestern Louisiana.

An engineering approach to the use of expert systems technology in avionics applications

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Duke, E. L.; Regenie, V. A.; Brazee, M.; Brumbaugh, R. W.

1986-01-01

The concept of using a knowledge compiler to transform the knowledge base and inference mechanism of an expert system into a conventional program is presented. The need to accommodate real-time systems requirements in applications such as embedded avionics is outlined. Expert systems and a brief comparison of expert systems and conventional programs are reviewed. Avionics applications of expert systems are discussed before the discussions of applying the proposed concept to example systems using forward and backward chaining.

Expert systems for real-time monitoring and fault diagnosis

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Edwards, S. J.; Caglayan, A. K.

1989-01-01

Methods for building real-time onboard expert systems were investigated, and the use of expert systems technology was demonstrated in improving the performance of current real-time onboard monitoring and fault diagnosis applications. The potential applications of the proposed research include an expert system environment allowing the integration of expert systems into conventional time-critical application solutions, a grammar for describing the discrete event behavior of monitoring and fault diagnosis systems, and their applications to new real-time hardware fault diagnosis and monitoring systems for aircraft.

Equating an expert system to a classifier in order to evaluate the expert system

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Odell, Patrick L.

1989-01-01

A strategy to evaluate an expert system is formulated. The strategy proposed is based on finding an equivalent classifier to an expert system and evaluate that classifier with respect to an optimal classifier, a Bayes classifier. Here it is shown that for the rules considered an equivalent classifier exists. Also, a brief consideration of meta and meta-meta rules is included. Also, a taxonomy of expert systems is presented and an assertion made that an equivalent classifier exists for each type of expert system in the taxonomy with associated sets of underlying assumptions.

Three CLIPS-based expert systems for solving engineering problems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Parkinson, W. J.; Luger, G. F.; Bretz, R. E.

1990-01-01

We have written three expert systems, using the CLIPS PC-based expert system shell. These three expert systems are rule based and are relatively small, with the largest containing slightly less than 200 rules. The first expert system is an expert assistant that was written to help users of the ASPEN computer code choose the proper thermodynamic package to use with their particular vapor-liquid equilibrium problem. The second expert system was designed to help petroleum engineers choose the proper enhanced oil recovery method to be used with a given reservoir. The effectiveness of each technique is highly dependent upon the reservoir conditions. The third expert system is a combination consultant and control system. This system was designed specifically for silicon carbide whisker growth. Silicon carbide whiskers are an extremely strong product used to make ceramic and metal composites. The manufacture of whiskers is a very complicated process. which to date. has defied a good mathematical model. The process was run by experts who had gained their expertise by trial and error. A system of rules was devised by these experts both for procedure setup and for the process control. In this paper we discuss the three problem areas of the design, development and evaluation of the CLIPS-based programs.

Small Knowledge-Based Systems in Education and Training: Something New Under the Sun.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wilson, Brent G.; Welsh, Jack R.

1986-01-01

Discusses artificial intelligence, robotics, natural language processing, and expert or knowledge-based systems research; examines two large expert systems, MYCIN and XCON; and reviews the resources required to build large expert systems and affordable smaller systems (intelligent job aids) for training. Expert system vendors and products are…

Interfaces and Expert Systems for Online Retrieval.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kehoe, Cynthia A.

1985-01-01

This paper reviews the history of separate online system interfaces which led to efforts to develop expert systems for searching databases, particularly for end users, and introduces the research on such expert systems. Appended is a bibliography of sources on interfaces and expert systems for online retrieval. (Author/EJS)

Expert and Knowledge Based Systems.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Demaid, Adrian; Edwards, Lyndon

1987-01-01

Discusses the nature and current state of knowledge-based systems and expert systems. Describes an expert system from the viewpoints of a computer programmer and an applications expert. Addresses concerns related to materials selection and forecasts future developments in the teaching of materials engineering. (ML)

Accountability for Community-Based Programs for the Seriously Ill.

PubMed

Teno, Joan M; Montgomery, Russ; Valuck, Tom; Corrigan, Janet; Meier, Diane E; Kelley, Amy; Curtis, J Randall; Engelberg, Ruth

2018-03-01

Innovation is needed to improve care of the seriously ill, and there are important opportunities as we transition from a volume- to value-based payment system. Not all seriously ill are dying; some recover, while others are persistently functionally impaired. While we innovate in service delivery and payment models for the seriously ill, it is important that we concurrently develop accountability that ensures a focus on high-quality care rather than narrowly focusing on cost containment. The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation convened a meeting of 45 experts to arrive at guiding principles for measurement, create a starter measurement set, specify a proposed definition of the denominator and its refinement, and identify research priorities for future implementation of the accountability system. A series of articles written by experts provided the basis for debate and guidance in formulating a path forward to develop an accountability system for community-based programs for the seriously ill, outlined in this article. As we innovate in existing population-based payment programs such as Medicare Advantage and develop new alternative payment models, it is important and urgent that we develop the foundation for accountability along with actionable measures so that the healthcare system ensures high-quality person- and family-centered care for persons who are seriously ill.

Accountability for Community-Based Programs for the Seriously Ill

PubMed Central

Montgomery, Russ; Valuck, Tom; Corrigan, Janet; Meier, Diane E.; Kelley, Amy; Curtis, J. Randall; Engelberg, Ruth

2018-01-01

Abstract Innovation is needed to improve care of the seriously ill, and there are important opportunities as we transition from a volume- to value-based payment system. Not all seriously ill are dying; some recover, while others are persistently functionally impaired. While we innovate in service delivery and payment models for the seriously ill, it is important that we concurrently develop accountability that ensures a focus on high-quality care rather than narrowly focusing on cost containment. The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation convened a meeting of 45 experts to arrive at guiding principles for measurement, create a starter measurement set, specify a proposed definition of the denominator and its refinement, and identify research priorities for future implementation of the accountability system. A series of articles written by experts provided the basis for debate and guidance in formulating a path forward to develop an accountability system for community-based programs for the seriously ill, outlined in this article. As we innovate in existing population-based payment programs such as Medicare Advantage and develop new alternative payment models, it is important and urgent that we develop the foundation for accountability along with actionable measures so that the healthcare system ensures high-quality person- and family-centered care for persons who are seriously ill. PMID:29195052

Detection of Hard Exudates in Colour Fundus Images Using Fuzzy Support Vector Machine-Based Expert System.

PubMed

Jaya, T; Dheeba, J; Singh, N Albert

2015-12-01

Diabetic retinopathy is a major cause of vision loss in diabetic patients. Currently, there is a need for making decisions using intelligent computer algorithms when screening a large volume of data. This paper presents an expert decision-making system designed using a fuzzy support vector machine (FSVM) classifier to detect hard exudates in fundus images. The optic discs in the colour fundus images are segmented to avoid false alarms using morphological operations and based on circular Hough transform. To discriminate between the exudates and the non-exudates pixels, colour and texture features are extracted from the images. These features are given as input to the FSVM classifier. The classifier analysed 200 retinal images collected from diabetic retinopathy screening programmes. The tests made on the retinal images show that the proposed detection system has better discriminating power than the conventional support vector machine. With the best combination of FSVM and features sets, the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve reached 0.9606, which corresponds to a sensitivity of 94.1% with a specificity of 90.0%. The results suggest that detecting hard exudates using FSVM contribute to computer-assisted detection of diabetic retinopathy and as a decision support system for ophthalmologists.

Space Station Mission Planning System (MPS) development study. Volume 2

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Klus, W. J.

1987-01-01

The process and existing software used for Spacelab payload mission planning were studied. A complete baseline definition of the Spacelab payload mission planning process was established, along with a definition of existing software capabilities for potential extrapolation to the Space Station. This information was used as a basis for defining system requirements to support Space Station mission planning. The Space Station mission planning concept was reviewed for the purpose of identifying areas where artificial intelligence concepts might offer substantially improved capability. Three specific artificial intelligence concepts were to be investigated for applicability: natural language interfaces; expert systems; and automatic programming. The advantages and disadvantages of interfacing an artificial intelligence language with existing FORTRAN programs or of converting totally to a new programming language were identified.

Increased cerebellar gray matter volume in head chefs

PubMed Central

Sarica, Alessia; Martino, Iolanda; Fabbricatore, Carmelo; Tomaiuolo, Francesco; Rocca, Federico; Caracciolo, Manuela; Quattrone, Aldo

2017-01-01

Objective Chefs exert expert motor and cognitive performances on a daily basis. Neuroimaging has clearly shown that that long-term skill learning (i.e., athletes, musicians, chess player or sommeliers) induces plastic changes in the brain thus enabling tasks to be performed faster and more accurately. How a chef's expertise is embodied in a specific neural network has never been investigated. Methods Eleven Italian head chefs with long-term brigade management expertise and 11 demographically-/ psychologically- matched non-experts underwent morphological evaluations. Results Voxel-based analysis performed with SUIT, as well as, automated volumetric measurement assessed with Freesurfer, revealed increased gray matter volume in the cerebellum in chefs compared to non-experts. The most significant changes were detected in the anterior vermis and the posterior cerebellar lobule. The magnitude of the brigade staff and the higher performance in the Tower of London test correlated with these specific gray matter increases, respectively. Conclusions We found that chefs are characterized by an anatomical variability involving the cerebellum. This confirms the role of this region in the development of similar expert brains characterized by learning dexterous skills, such as pianists, rock climbers and basketball players. However, the nature of the cellular events underlying the detected morphological differences remains an open question. PMID:28182712

Committee to evaluate Sandia`s risk expertise: Final report. Volume 1: Presentations

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Dudley, E.C.

1998-05-01

On July 1--2, 1997, Sandia National Laboratories hosted the External Committee to Evaluate Sandia`s Risk Expertise. Under the auspices of SIISRS (Sandia`s International Institute for Systematic Risk Studies), Sandia assembled a blue-ribbon panel of experts in the field of risk management to assess their risk programs labs-wide. Panelists were chosen not only for their own expertise, but also for their ability to add balance to the panel as a whole. Presentations were made to the committee on the risk activities at Sandia. In addition, a tour of Sandia`s research and development programs in support of the US Nuclear Regulatory Commissionmore » was arranged. The panel attended a poster session featuring eight presentations and demonstrations for selected projects. Overviews and viewgraphs from the presentations are included in Volume 1 of this report. Presentations are related to weapons, nuclear power plants, transportation systems, architectural surety, environmental programs, and information systems.« less

Reliability and performance evaluation of systems containing embedded rule-based expert systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Beaton, Robert M.; Adams, Milton B.; Harrison, James V. A.

1989-01-01

A method for evaluating the reliability of real-time systems containing embedded rule-based expert systems is proposed and investigated. It is a three stage technique that addresses the impact of knowledge-base uncertainties on the performance of expert systems. In the first stage, a Markov reliability model of the system is developed which identifies the key performance parameters of the expert system. In the second stage, the evaluation method is used to determine the values of the expert system's key performance parameters. The performance parameters can be evaluated directly by using a probabilistic model of uncertainties in the knowledge-base or by using sensitivity analyses. In the third and final state, the performance parameters of the expert system are combined with performance parameters for other system components and subsystems to evaluate the reliability and performance of the complete system. The evaluation method is demonstrated in the context of a simple expert system used to supervise the performances of an FDI algorithm associated with an aircraft longitudinal flight-control system.

Executing CLIPS expert systems in a distributed environment

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Taylor, James; Myers, Leonard

1990-01-01

This paper describes a framework for running cooperating agents in a distributed environment to support the Intelligent Computer Aided Design System (ICADS), a project in progress at the CAD Research Unit of the Design Institute at the California Polytechnic State University. Currently, the systems aids an architectural designer in creating a floor plan that satisfies some general architectural constraints and project specific requirements. At the core of ICADS is the Blackboard Control System. Connected to the blackboard are any number of domain experts called Intelligent Design Tools (IDT). The Blackboard Control System monitors the evolving design as it is being drawn and helps resolve conflicts from the domain experts. The user serves as a partner in this system by manipulating the floor plan in the CAD system and validating recommendations made by the domain experts. The primary components of the Blackboard Control System are two expert systems executed by a modified CLIPS shell. The first is the Message Handler. The second is the Conflict Resolver. The Conflict Resolver synthesizes the suggestions made by the domain experts, which can be either CLIPS expert systems, or compiled C programs. In DEMO1, the current ICADS prototype, the CLIPS domain expert systems are Acoustics, Lighting, Structural, and Thermal; the compiled C domain experts are the CAD system and the User Interface.

Expert system prototype developments for NASA-KSC business and engineering applications

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ragusa, James M.; Gonzalez, Avelino J.

1988-01-01

Prototype expert systems developed for a variety of NASA projects in the business/management and engineering domains are discussed. Business-related problems addressed include an assistant for simulating launch vehicle processing, a plan advisor for the acquisition of automated data processing equipment, and an expert system for the identification of customer requirements. Engineering problems treated include an expert system for detecting potential ignition sources in LOX and gaseous-oxygen transportation systems and an expert system for hazardous-gas detection.

A CLIPS expert system for maximizing alfalfa (Medicago Sativa L.) production

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Engel, B. A.; Jones, D. D.; Rhykerd, R. L.; Rhykerd, L. M.; Rhykerd, C. L., Jr.; Rhykerd, C. L.

1990-01-01

An alfalfa management expert system originally developed by Purdue University agricultural scientists on the PC Plus expert system shell from Texas Instrument has been updated and successfully converted to CLIPS (C Language Integrated Production System). This reduces the cost and legal restrictions associated with making the expert system available to agribusiness industries, extension personnel and farm managers and operators. The expert system includes recommendations concerning soil drainage, liming, P and K fertilization, weed control, variety selection and seeding rate including pure live seeds.

Do clinicians prescribe exercise similarly in patients with different cardiovascular diseases? Findings from the EAPC EXPERT working group survey.

PubMed

Hansen, Dominique; Rovelo Ruiz, Gustavo; Doherty, Patrick; Iliou, Marie-Christine; Vromen, Tom; Hinton, Sally; Frederix, Ines; Wilhelm, Matthias; Schmid, Jean-Paul; Abreu, Ana; Ambrosetti, Marco; Garcia-Porrero, Esteban; Coninx, Karin; Dendale, Paul

2018-05-01

Background Although disease-specific exercise guidelines for cardiovascular disease (CVD) are widely available, it remains uncertain whether these different exercise guidelines are integrated properly for patients with different CVDs. The aim of this study was to assess the inter-clinician variance in exercise prescription for patients with various CVDs and to compare these prescriptions with recommendations from the EXercise Prescription in Everyday practice and Rehabilitative Training (EXPERT) tool, a digital decision support system for integrated state-of-the-art exercise prescription in CVD. Design The study was a prospective observational survey. Methods Fifty-three CV rehabilitation clinicians from nine European countries were asked to prescribe exercise intensity (based on percentage of peak heart rate (HR peak )), frequency, session duration, programme duration and exercise type (endurance or strength training) for the same five patients. Exercise prescriptions were compared between clinicians, and relationships with clinician characteristics were studied. In addition, these exercise prescriptions were compared with recommendations from the EXPERT tool. Results A large inter-clinician variance was found for prescribed exercise intensity (median (interquartile range (IQR)): 83 (13) % of HR peak ), frequency (median (IQR): 4 (2) days/week), session duration (median (IQR): 45 (18) min/session), programme duration (median (IQR): 12 (18) weeks), total exercise volume (median (IQR): 1215 (1961) peak-effort training hours) and prescription of strength training exercises (prescribed in 78% of all cases). Moreover, clinicians' exercise prescriptions were significantly different from those of the EXPERT tool ( p < 0.001). Conclusions This study reveals significant inter-clinician variance in exercise prescription for patients with different CVDs and disagreement with an integrated state-of-the-art system for exercise prescription, justifying the need for standardization efforts regarding integrated exercise prescription in CV rehabilitation.

Knowledge-based fault diagnosis system for refuse collection vehicle

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Tan, CheeFai; Juffrizal, K.; Khalil, S. N.

The refuse collection vehicle is manufactured by local vehicle body manufacturer. Currently; the company supplied six model of the waste compactor truck to the local authority as well as waste management company. The company is facing difficulty to acquire the knowledge from the expert when the expert is absence. To solve the problem, the knowledge from the expert can be stored in the expert system. The expert system is able to provide necessary support to the company when the expert is not available. The implementation of the process and tool is able to be standardize and more accurate. The knowledgemore » that input to the expert system is based on design guidelines and experience from the expert. This project highlighted another application on knowledge-based system (KBS) approached in trouble shooting of the refuse collection vehicle production process. The main aim of the research is to develop a novel expert fault diagnosis system framework for the refuse collection vehicle.« less

Selected papers in the applied computer sciences 1992

USGS Publications Warehouse

Wiltshire, Denise A.

1992-01-01

This compilation of short papers reports on technical advances in the applied computer sciences. The papers describe computer applications in support of earth science investigations and research. This is the third volume in the series "Selected Papers in the Applied Computer Sciences." Listed below are the topics addressed in the compilation:Integration of geographic information systems and expert systems for resource management,Visualization of topography using digital image processing,Development of a ground-water data base for the southeastern Uited States using a geographic information system,Integration and aggregation of stream-drainage data using a geographic information system,Procedures used in production of digital geologic coverage using compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM) technology, andAutomated methods for producing a technical publication on estimated water use in the United States.

Expert consensus contouring guidelines for IMRT in esophageal and gastroesophageal junction cancer

PubMed Central

Wu, Abraham J.; Bosch, Walter R.; Chang, Daniel T.; Hong, Theodore S.; Jabbour, Salma K.; Kleinberg, Lawrence R.; Mamon, Harvey J.; Thomas, Charles R.; Goodman, Karyn A.

2015-01-01

Purpose/Objective(s) Current guidelines for esophageal cancer contouring are derived from traditional two-dimensional fields based on bony landmarks, and do not provide sufficient anatomical detail to ensure consistent contouring for more conformal radiotherapy techniques such as intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT). Therefore, we convened an expert panel with the specific aim to derive contouring guidelines and generate an atlas for the clinical target volume (CTV) in esophageal or gastroesophageal junction (GEJ) cancer. Methods and Materials Eight expert academically-based gastrointestinal radiation oncologists participated. Three sample cases were chosen: a GEJ cancer, a distal esophageal cancer, and a mid-upper esophageal cancer. Uniform CT simulation datasets and an accompanying diagnostic PET-CT were distributed to each expert, and he/she was instructed to generate gross tumor volume (GTV) and CTV contours for each case. All contours were aggregated and subjected to quantitative analysis to assess the degree of concordance between experts and generate draft consensus contours. The panel then refined these contours to generate the contouring atlas. Results Kappa statistics indicated substantial agreement between panelists for each of the three test cases. A consensus CTV atlas was generated for the three test cases, each representing common anatomic presentations of esophageal cancer. The panel agreed on guidelines and principles to facilitate the generalizability of the atlas to individual cases. Conclusions This expert panel successfully reached agreement on contouring guidelines for esophageal and GEJ IMRT and generated a reference CTV atlas. This atlas will serve as a reference for IMRT contours for clinical practice and prospective trial design. Subsequent patterns of failure analyses of clinical datasets utilizing these guidelines may require modification in the future. PMID:26104943

A parallel strategy for implementing real-time expert systems using CLIPS

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ilyes, Laszlo A.; Villaseca, F. Eugenio; Delaat, John

1994-01-01

As evidenced by current literature, there appears to be a continued interest in the study of real-time expert systems. It is generally recognized that speed of execution is only one consideration when designing an effective real-time expert system. Some other features one must consider are the expert system's ability to perform temporal reasoning, handle interrupts, prioritize data, contend with data uncertainty, and perform context focusing as dictated by the incoming data to the expert system. This paper presents a strategy for implementing a real time expert system on the iPSC/860 hypercube parallel computer using CLIPS. The strategy takes into consideration not only the execution time of the software, but also those features which define a true real-time expert system. The methodology is then demonstrated using a practical implementation of an expert system which performs diagnostics on the Space Shuttle Main Engine (SSME). This particular implementation uses an eight node hypercube to process ten sensor measurements in order to simultaneously diagnose five different failure modes within the SSME. The main program is written in ANSI C and embeds CLIPS to better facilitate and debug the rule based expert system.

Explainable expert systems: A research program in information processing

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Paris, Cecile L.

1993-01-01

Our work in Explainable Expert Systems (EES) had two goals: to extend and enhance the range of explanations that expert systems can offer, and to ease their maintenance and evolution. As suggested in our proposal, these goals are complementary because they place similar demands on the underlying architecture of the expert system: they both require the knowledge contained in a system to be explicitly represented, in a high-level declarative language and in a modular fashion. With these two goals in mind, the Explainable Expert Systems (EES) framework was designed to remedy limitations to explainability and evolvability that stem from related fundamental flaws in the underlying architecture of current expert systems.

SWAN: An expert system with natural language interface for tactical air capability assessment

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Simmons, Robert M.

1987-01-01

SWAN is an expert system and natural language interface for assessing the war fighting capability of Air Force units in Europe. The expert system is an object oriented knowledge based simulation with an alternate worlds facility for performing what-if excursions. Responses from the system take the form of generated text, tables, or graphs. The natural language interface is an expert system in its own right, with a knowledge base and rules which understand how to access external databases, models, or expert systems. The distinguishing feature of the Air Force expert system is its use of meta-knowledge to generate explanations in the frame and procedure based environment.

DELTA: An Expert System for Diesel Electric Locomotive Repair

DTIC Science & Technology

1984-06-01

Rules and Inference Mechanisms. AD-P003 943 The ACE (Automated Cable Expert) Exlpelient: Initial Evaluation of an Expert System for Preventive...tions. The first field prototype expert system, designated CATS -i (Computer-Aided Troubleshooting System - Version 1), was delivered in July 1983 and is

Techniques for capturing expert knowledge - An expert systems/hypertext approach

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lafferty, Larry; Taylor, Greg; Schumann, Robin; Evans, Randy; Koller, Albert M., Jr.

1990-01-01

The knowledge-acquisition strategy developed for the Explosive Hazards Classification (EHC) Expert System is described in which expert systems and hypertext are combined, and broad applications are proposed. The EHC expert system is based on rapid prototyping in which primary knowledge acquisition from experts is not emphasized; the explosive hazards technical bulletin, technical guidance, and minimal interviewing are used to develop the knowledge-based system. Hypertext is used to capture the technical information with respect to four issues including procedural, materials, test, and classification issues. The hypertext display allows the integration of multiple knowlege representations such as clarifications or opinions, and thereby allows the performance of a broad range of tasks on a single machine. Among other recommendations, it is suggested that the integration of hypertext and expert systems makes the resulting synergistic system highly efficient.

International guideline for the delineation of the clinical target volumes (CTV) for nasopharyngeal carcinoma.

PubMed

Lee, Anne W; Ng, Wai Tong; Pan, Jian Ji; Poh, Sharon S; Ahn, Yong Chan; AlHussain, Hussain; Corry, June; Grau, Cai; Grégoire, Vincent; Harrington, Kevin J; Hu, Chao Su; Kwong, Dora L; Langendijk, Johannes A; Le, Quynh Thu; Lee, Nancy Y; Lin, Jin Ching; Lu, Tai Xiang; Mendenhall, William M; O'Sullivan, Brian; Ozyar, Enis; Peters, Lester J; Rosenthal, David I; Soong, Yoke Lim; Tao, Yungan; Yom, Sue S; Wee, Joseph T

2018-01-01

Target delineation in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) often proves challenging because of the notoriously narrow therapeutic margin. High doses are needed to achieve optimal levels of tumour control, and dosimetric inadequacy remains one of the most important independent factors affecting treatment outcome. A review of the available literature addressing the natural behaviour of NPC and correlation between clinical and pathological aspects of the disease was conducted. Existing international guidelines as well as published protocols specified by clinical trials on contouring of clinical target volumes (CTV) were compared. This information was then summarized into a preliminary draft guideline which was then circulated to international experts in the field for exchange of opinions and subsequent voting on areas with the greatest controversies. Common areas of uncertainty and variation in practices among experts experienced in radiation therapy for NPC were elucidated. Iterative revisions were made based on extensive discussion and final voting on controversial areas by the expert panel, to formulate the recommendations on contouring of CTV based on optimal geometric expansion and anatomical editing for those structures with substantial risk of microscopic infiltration. Through this comprehensive review of available evidence and best practices at major institutions, as well as interactive exchange of vast experience by international experts, this set of consensus guidelines has been developed to provide a practical reference for appropriate contouring to ensure optimal target coverage. However, the final decision on the treatment volumes should be based on full consideration of individual patients' factors and facilities of an individual centre (including the quality of imaging methods and the precision of treatment delivery). Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The European Association of Preventive Cardiology Exercise Prescription in Everyday Practice and Rehabilitative Training (EXPERT) tool: A digital training and decision support system for optimized exercise prescription in cardiovascular disease. Concept, definitions and construction methodology.

PubMed

Hansen, Dominique; Dendale, Paul; Coninx, Karin; Vanhees, Luc; Piepoli, Massimo F; Niebauer, Josef; Cornelissen, Veronique; Pedretti, Roberto; Geurts, Eva; Ruiz, Gustavo R; Corrà, Ugo; Schmid, Jean-Paul; Greco, Eugenio; Davos, Constantinos H; Edelmann, Frank; Abreu, Ana; Rauch, Bernhard; Ambrosetti, Marco; Braga, Simona S; Barna, Olga; Beckers, Paul; Bussotti, Maurizio; Fagard, Robert; Faggiano, Pompilio; Garcia-Porrero, Esteban; Kouidi, Evangelia; Lamotte, Michel; Neunhäuserer, Daniel; Reibis, Rona; Spruit, Martijn A; Stettler, Christoph; Takken, Tim; Tonoli, Cajsa; Vigorito, Carlo; Völler, Heinz; Doherty, Patrick

2017-07-01

Background Exercise rehabilitation is highly recommended by current guidelines on prevention of cardiovascular disease, but its implementation is still poor. Many clinicians experience difficulties in prescribing exercise in the presence of different concomitant cardiovascular diseases and risk factors within the same patient. It was aimed to develop a digital training and decision support system for exercise prescription in cardiovascular disease patients in clinical practice: the European Association of Preventive Cardiology Exercise Prescription in Everyday Practice and Rehabilitative Training (EXPERT) tool. Methods EXPERT working group members were requested to define (a) diagnostic criteria for specific cardiovascular diseases, cardiovascular disease risk factors, and other chronic non-cardiovascular conditions, (b) primary goals of exercise intervention, (c) disease-specific prescription of exercise training (intensity, frequency, volume, type, session and programme duration), and (d) exercise training safety advices. The impact of exercise tolerance, common cardiovascular medications and adverse events during exercise testing were further taken into account for optimized exercise prescription. Results Exercise training recommendations and safety advices were formulated for 10 cardiovascular diseases, five cardiovascular disease risk factors (type 1 and 2 diabetes, obesity, hypertension, hypercholesterolaemia), and three common chronic non-cardiovascular conditions (lung and renal failure and sarcopaenia), but also accounted for baseline exercise tolerance, common cardiovascular medications and occurrence of adverse events during exercise testing. An algorithm, supported by an interactive tool, was constructed based on these data. This training and decision support system automatically provides an exercise prescription according to the variables provided. Conclusion This digital training and decision support system may contribute in overcoming barriers in exercise implementation in common cardiovascular diseases.

Diagnosis - Using automatic test equipment and artificial intelligence expert systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ramsey, J. E., Jr.

Three expert systems (ATEOPS, ATEFEXPERS, and ATEFATLAS), which were created to direct automatic test equipment (ATE), are reviewed. The purpose of the project was to develop an expert system to troubleshoot the converter-programmer power supply card for the F-15 aircraft and have that expert system direct the automatic test equipment. Each expert system uses a different knowledge base or inference engine, basing the testing on the circuit schematic, test requirements document, or ATLAS code. Implementing generalized modules allows the expert systems to be used for any different unit under test. Using converted ATLAS to LISP code allows the expert system to direct any ATE using ATLAS. The constraint propagated frame system allows for the expansion of control by creating the ATLAS code, checking the code for good software engineering techniques, directing the ATE, and changing the test sequence as needed (planning).

Techniques and implementation of the embedded rule-based expert system using Ada

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Liberman, Eugene M.; Jones, Robert E.

1991-01-01

Ada is becoming an increasingly popular programming language for large Government-funded software projects. Ada with its portability, transportability, and maintainability lends itself well to today's complex programming environment. In addition, expert systems have also assured a growing role in providing human-like reasoning capability and expertise for computer systems. The integration of expert system technology with Ada programming language, specifically a rule-based expert system using an ART-Ada (Automated Reasoning Tool for Ada) system shell is discussed. The NASA Lewis Research Center was chosen as a beta test site for ART-Ada. The test was conducted by implementing the existing Autonomous Power EXpert System (APEX), a Lisp-base power expert system, in ART-Ada. Three components, the rule-based expert system, a graphics user interface, and communications software make up SMART-Ada (Systems fault Management with ART-Ada). The main objective, to conduct a beta test on the ART-Ada rule-based expert system shell, was achieved. The system is operational. New Ada tools will assist in future successful projects. ART-Ada is one such tool and is a viable alternative to the straight Ada code when an application requires a rule-based or knowledge-based approach.

Expert Systems--The New International Language of Business.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sondak, Norman E.; And Others

A discussion of expert systems, computer programs designed to simulate human reasoning and expertise, begins with the assumption that few business educators understand the impact that expert systems will have on international business. The fundamental principles of the design and development of expert systems in business are outlined, with special…

Sensors Applications, Volume 4, Sensors for Automotive Applications

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Marek, Jiri; Trah, Hans-Peter; Suzuki, Yasutoshi; Yokomori, Iwao

2003-07-01

An international team of experts from the leading companies in this field gives a detailed picture of existing as well as future applications. They discuss in detail current technologies, design and construction concepts, market considerations and commercial developments. Topics covered include vehicle safety, fuel consumption, air conditioning, emergency control, traffic control systems, and electronic guidance using radar and video. Meeting the growing need for comprehensive information on the capabilities, potentials and limitations of modern sensor systems, Sensors Applications is a book series covering the use of sophisticated technologies and materials for the creation of advanced sensors and their implementation in the key areas process monitoring, building control, health care, automobiles, aerospace, environmental technology and household appliances.

ICC '86; Proceedings of the International Conference on Communications, Toronto, Canada, June 22-25, 1986, Conference Record. Volumes 1, 2, & 3

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Papers are presented on ISDN, mobile radio systems and techniques for digital connectivity, centralized and distributed algorithms in computer networks, communications networks, quality assurance and impact on cost, adaptive filters in communications, the spread spectrum, signal processing, video communication techniques, and digital satellite services. Topics discussed include performance evaluation issues for integrated protocols, packet network operations, the computer network theory and multiple-access, microwave single sideband systems, switching architectures, fiber optic systems, wireless local communications, modulation, coding, and synchronization, remote switching, software quality, transmission, and expert systems in network operations. Consideration is given to wide area networks, image and speech processing, office communications application protocols, multimedia systems, customer-controlled network operations, digital radio systems, channel modeling and signal processing in digital communications, earth station/on-board modems, computer communications system performance evaluation, source encoding, compression, and quantization, and adaptive communications systems.

Data Integration and Analysis System (DIAS) Contributing to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Koike, T.

2014-12-01

It has been said that scientists and experts usually use 80% of their research time for data management (DOE, 2002). Only 20% of research time is used for purely scientific activities. This ratio should be reversed by introducing computer science technology. To realize this goal, the Japanese government supported the development of a data system called "Data Integration and Analysis System (DIAS)," as one of the national key projects promoted by the Council for Science and Technology Policy (CSTP) from 2006 to 2010. A follow-up 5-year project is also ongoing. The essential aim for the DIAS was to create knowledge that would enable solutions to problems and generate socioeconomic benefits. DIAS mainly consists of four data components including data injection, management, integration, and interoperability. DIAS is now tackling a large increase in the diversity and volume of data from observing the Earth. Dictionaries have been developing an ontology system for technical and geographical terms, and a metadata design has been completed according to international standards. The volume of data stored has exponentially increased. Previously, almost all of the large-volume data came from satellites, but model outputs occupy the largest volume of our data storage nowadays. In collaboration with scientific and technological groups, DIAS can accelerate data archiving by including data loading, quality checking, metadata registration, and our system data-searching capability is being enriched. DIAS also enables us to perform integrated research and realize interdisciplinarity. Essentially, we are now working in the fields of climate, water resources, food, fisheries, and biodiversity by collaborating between different disciplines and trying to develop bases of contribution to Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Expert Systems in Education and Training: Automated Job Aids or Sophisticated Instructional Media?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Romiszowski, Alexander J.

1987-01-01

Describes the current status and limitations of expert systems, and explores the possible applications of such systems in education and training. The use of expert systems as tutors, as job aids, and as a vehicle for students to develop their own expert systems on specific topics are discussed. (40 references) (CLB)

Expert systems and simulation models; Proceedings of the Seminar, Tucson, AZ, November 18, 19, 1985

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1986-01-01

The seminar presents papers on modeling and simulation methodology, artificial intelligence and expert systems, environments for simulation/expert system development, and methodology for simulation/expert system development. Particular attention is given to simulation modeling concepts and their representation, modular hierarchical model specification, knowledge representation, and rule-based diagnostic expert system development. Other topics include the combination of symbolic and discrete event simulation, real time inferencing, and the management of large knowledge-based simulation projects.

Strategies for adding adaptive learning mechanisms to rule-based diagnostic expert systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Stclair, D. C.; Sabharwal, C. L.; Bond, W. E.; Hacke, Keith

1988-01-01

Rule-based diagnostic expert systems can be used to perform many of the diagnostic chores necessary in today's complex space systems. These expert systems typically take a set of symptoms as input and produce diagnostic advice as output. The primary objective of such expert systems is to provide accurate and comprehensive advice which can be used to help return the space system in question to nominal operation. The development and maintenance of diagnostic expert systems is time and labor intensive since the services of both knowledge engineer(s) and domain expert(s) are required. The use of adaptive learning mechanisms to increment evaluate and refine rules promises to reduce both time and labor costs associated with such systems. This paper describes the basic adaptive learning mechanisms of strengthening, weakening, generalization, discrimination, and discovery. Next basic strategies are discussed for adding these learning mechanisms to rule-based diagnostic expert systems. These strategies support the incremental evaluation and refinement of rules in the knowledge base by comparing the set of advice given by the expert system (A) with the correct diagnosis (C). Techniques are described for selecting those rules in the in the knowledge base which should participate in adaptive learning. The strategies presented may be used with a wide variety of learning algorithms. Further, these strategies are applicable to a large number of rule-based diagnostic expert systems. They may be used to provide either immediate or deferred updating of the knowledge base.

ART-Ada design project, phase 2

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lee, S. Daniel; Allen, Bradley P.

1990-01-01

Interest in deploying expert systems in Ada has increased. An Ada based expert system tool is described called ART-Ada, which was built to support research into the language and methodological issues of expert systems in Ada. ART-Ada allows applications of an existing expert system tool called ART-IM (Automated Reasoning Tool for Information Management) to be deployed in various Ada environments. ART-IM, a C-based expert system tool, is used to generate Ada source code which is compiled and linked with an Ada based inference engine to produce an Ada executable image. ART-Ada is being used to implement several expert systems for NASA's Space Station Freedom Program and the U.S. Air Force.

Analysis of the tractive force pattern on a knot by force measurement during laparoscopic knot tying.

PubMed

Takayasu, Kenta; Yoshida, Kenji; Kinoshita, Hidefumi; Yoshimoto, Syunsuke; Oshiro, Osamu; Matsuda, Tadashi

2017-07-19

Quantifying surgical skills assists novice surgeons when learning operative techniques. We measured the interaction force at a ligation point and clarified the features of the force pattern among surgeons with different skill levels during laparoscopic knot tying. Forty-four surgeons were divided into three groups based on experience: 13 novice (0-5 years), 16 intermediate (6-15 years), and 15 expert (16-30 years). To assess the tractive force direction and volume during knot tying, we used a sensor that measures six force-torque values (x-axis: Fx, y-axis: Fy, z-axis: Fz, and xy-axis: Fxy) attached to a slit Penrose drain. All participants completed one double knot and five single knot sequences. We recorded completion time, force volume (FV), maximum force (MF), time over 1.5 N, duration of non-zero force, and percentage time when vertical force exceeded horizontal force (PTz). There was a significant difference between groups for completion time (p = 0.007); FV (total: p = 0.002; Fx: p = 0.004, Fy: p = 0.007, Fxy: p = 0.004, Fz: p < 0.001, Fxy/Fz: p = 0.003), MF (total: p = 0.004; Fx: p = 0.015, Fy: p = 0.035, Fxy: p = 0.009, Fz: p = 0.001, Fxy/Fz: p = 0.041); time over 1.5 N (p = 0.002); duration of non-zero force (p = 0.029); and PTz (p < 0.001). PTz showed the only significant difference comparing intermediates with experts (intermediates: 13.7 ± 9.0, experts: 4.9 ± 3.2; p < 0.001). We clarified the characteristics of the force pattern at the ligation point during suturing by surgeons with three levels of experience using a force measurement system. We revealed that both force volume and force direction differed depending on surgeons' skill level during knot tying. Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier Inc.

Probabilistic accident consequence uncertainty analysis -- Late health effects uncertain assessment. Volume 2: Appendices

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Little, M.P.; Muirhead, C.R.; Goossens, L.H.J.

1997-12-01

The development of two new probabilistic accident consequence codes, MACCS and COSYMA, was completed in 1990. These codes estimate the consequence from the accidental releases of radiological material from hypothesized accidents at nuclear installations. In 1991, the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Commission of the European Communities began cosponsoring a joint uncertainty analysis of the two codes. The ultimate objective of this joint effort was to systematically develop credible and traceable uncertainty distributions for the respective code input variables. A formal expert judgment elicitation and evaluation process was identified as the best technology available for developing a library ofmore » uncertainty distributions for these consequence parameters. This report focuses on the results of the study to develop distribution for variables related to the MACCS and COSYMA late health effects models. This volume contains appendices that include (1) a summary of the MACCS and COSYMA consequence codes, (2) the elicitation questionnaires and case structures, (3) the rationales and results for the expert panel on late health effects, (4) short biographies of the experts, and (5) the aggregated results of their responses.« less

A neural network architecture for implementation of expert systems for real time monitoring

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ramamoorthy, P. A.

1991-01-01

Since neural networks have the advantages of massive parallelism and simple architecture, they are good tools for implementing real time expert systems. In a rule based expert system, the antecedents of rules are in the conjunctive or disjunctive form. We constructed a multilayer feedforward type network in which neurons represent AND or OR operations of rules. Further, we developed a translator which can automatically map a given rule base into the network. Also, we proposed a new and powerful yet flexible architecture that combines the advantages of both fuzzy expert systems and neural networks. This architecture uses the fuzzy logic concepts to separate input data domains into several smaller and overlapped regions. Rule-based expert systems for time critical applications using neural networks, the automated implementation of rule-based expert systems with neural nets, and fuzzy expert systems vs. neural nets are covered.

What Is An Expert System? ERIC Digest.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Boss, Richard W.

This digest describes and defines the various components of an expert system, e.g., a computerized tool designed to enhance the quality and availability of knowledge required by decision makers. It is noted that expert systems differ from conventional applications software in the following areas: (1) the existence of the expert systems shell, or…

Rhetorical Consequences of the Computer Society: Expert Systems and Human Communication.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Skopec, Eric Wm.

Expert systems are computer programs that solve selected problems by modelling domain-specific behaviors of human experts. These computer programs typically consist of an input/output system that feeds data into the computer and retrieves advice, an inference system using the reasoning and heuristic processes of human experts, and a knowledge…

Expert Systems: A Challenge for the Reading Profession.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Balajthy, Ernest

The expert systems are designed to imitate the reasoning of a human expert in a content area field. Designed to be advisors, these software systems combine the content area knowledge and decision-making ability of an expert with the user's understanding and knowledge of particular circumstances. The reading diagnosis system, the RD2P System…

Expert Systems: Implications for the Diagnosis and Treatment of Learning Disabilities.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hofmeister, Alan M.; Lubke, Margaret M.

1988-01-01

The article examines characteristics and present or potential applications of expert systems technology for diagnosis and treatment of learning disabilities. Preliminary findings indicate that expert systems can perform as well as humans in specific areas, and that the process of organizing knowledge bases for expert systems helps clarify existing…

Design of an Ada expert system shell for the VHSIC avionic modular flight processor

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Fanning, F. Jesse

1992-01-01

The Embedded Computer System Expert System Shell (ES Shell) is an Ada-based expert system shell developed at the Avionics Laboratory for use on the VHSIC Avionic Modular Processor (VAMP) running under the Ada Avionics Real-Time Software (AARTS) Operating System. The ES Shell provides the interface between the expert system and the avionics environment, and controls execution of the expert system. Testing of the ES Shell in the Avionics Laboratory's Integrated Test Bed (ITB) has demonstrated its ability to control a non-deterministic software application executing on the VAMP's which can control the ITB's real-time closed-loop aircraft simulation. The results of these tests and the conclusions reached in the design and development of the ES Shell have played an important role in the formulation of the requirements for a production-quality expert system inference engine, an ingredient necessary for the successful use of expert systems on the VAMP embedded avionic flight processor.

The need for a comprehensive expert system development methodology

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Baumert, John; Critchfield, Anna; Leavitt, Karen

1988-01-01

In a traditional software development environment, the introduction of standardized approaches has led to higher quality, maintainable products on the technical side and greater visibility into the status of the effort on the management side. This study examined expert system development to determine whether it differed enough from traditional systems to warrant a reevaluation of current software development methodologies. Its purpose was to identify areas of similarity with traditional software development and areas requiring tailoring to the unique needs of expert systems. A second purpose was to determine whether existing expert system development methodologies meet the needs of expert system development, management, and maintenance personnel. The study consisted of a literature search and personal interviews. It was determined that existing methodologies and approaches to developing expert systems are not comprehensive nor are they easily applied, especially to cradle to grave system development. As a result, requirements were derived for an expert system development methodology and an initial annotated outline derived for such a methodology.

Validation of an expert system intended for research in distributed artificial intelligence

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Grossner, C.; Lyons, J.; Radhakrishnan, T.

1991-01-01

The expert system discussed in this paper is designed to function as a testbed for research on cooperating expert systems. Cooperating expert systems are members of an organization which dictates the manner in which the expert systems will interact when solving a problem. The Blackbox Expert described in this paper has been constructed using the C Language Integrated Production System (CLIPS), C++, and X windowing environment. CLIPS is embedded in a C++ program which provides objects that are used to maintain the state of the Blackbox puzzle. These objects are accessed by CLIPS rules through user-defined functions calls. The performance of the Blackbox Expert is validated by experimentation. A group of people are asked to solve a set of test cases for the Blackbox puzzle. A metric has been devised which evaluates the 'correctness' of a solution proposed for a test case of Blackbox. Using this metric and the solutions proposed by the humans, each person receives a rating for their ability to solve the Blackbox puzzle. The Blackbox Expert solves the same set of test cases and is assigned a rating for its ability. Then the rating obtained by the Blackbox Expert is compared with the ratings of the people, thus establishing the skill level of our expert system.

Photolithography diagnostic expert systems: a systematic approach to problem solving in a wafer fabrication facility

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Weatherwax Scott, Caroline; Tsareff, Christopher R.

1990-06-01

One of the main goals of process engineering in the semiconductor industry is to improve wafer fabrication productivity and throughput. Engineers must work continuously toward this goal in addition to performing sustaining and development tasks. To accomplish these objectives, managers must make efficient use of engineering resources. One of the tools being used to improve efficiency is the diagnostic expert system. Expert systems are knowledge based computer programs designed to lead the user through the analysis and solution of a problem. Several photolithography diagnostic expert systems have been implemented at the Hughes Technology Center to provide a systematic approach to process problem solving. This systematic approach was achieved by documenting cause and effect analyses for a wide variety of processing problems. This knowledge was organized in the form of IF-THEN rules, a common structure for knowledge representation in expert system technology. These rules form the knowledge base of the expert system which is stored in the computer. The systems also include the problem solving methodology used by the expert when addressing a problem in his area of expertise. Operators now use the expert systems to solve many process problems without engineering assistance. The systems also facilitate the collection of appropriate data to assist engineering in solving unanticipated problems. Currently, several expert systems have been implemented to cover all aspects of the photolithography process. The systems, which have been in use for over a year, include wafer surface preparation (HMDS), photoresist coat and softbake, align and expose on a wafer stepper, and develop inspection. These systems are part of a plan to implement an expert system diagnostic environment throughout the wafer fabrication facility. In this paper, the systems' construction is described, including knowledge acquisition, rule construction, knowledge refinement, testing, and evaluation. The roles played by the process engineering expert and the knowledge engineer are discussed. The features of the systems are shown, particularly the interactive quality of the consultations and the ease of system use.

GLOBECOM '89 - IEEE Global Telecommunications Conference and Exhibition, Dallas, TX, Nov. 27-30, 1989, Conference Record. Volumes 1, 2, & 3

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

The present conference discusses topics in multiwavelength network technology and its applications, advanced digital radio systems in their propagation environment, mobile radio communications, switching programmability, advancements in computer communications, integrated-network management and security, HDTV and image processing in communications, basic exchange communications radio advancements in digital switching, intelligent network evolution, speech coding for telecommunications, and multiple access communications. Also discussed are network designs for quality assurance, recent progress in coherent optical systems, digital radio applications, advanced communications technologies for mobile users, communication software for switching systems, AI and expert systems in network management, intelligent multiplexing nodes, video and image coding, network protocols and performance, system methods in quality and reliability, the design and simulation of lightwave systems, local radio networks, mobile satellite communications systems, fiber networks restoration, packet video networks, human interfaces for future networks, and lightwave networking.

MOORE: A prototype expert system for diagnosing spacecraft problems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Howlin, Katherine; Weissert, Jerry; Krantz, Kerry

1988-01-01

MOORE is a rule-based, prototype expert system that assists in diagnosing operational Tracking and Data Relay Satellite (TDRS) problems. It is intended to assist spacecraft engineers at the TDRS ground terminal in trouble shooting problems that are not readily solved with routine procedures, and without expert counsel. An additional goal of the prototype system is to develop in-house expert system and knowledge engineering skills. The prototype system diagnoses antenna pointing and earth pointing problems that may occur within the TDRS Attitude Control System (ACS). Plans include expansion to fault isolation of problems in the most critical subsystems of the TDRS spacecraft. Long term benefits are anticipated with use of an expert system during future TDRS programs with increased mission support time, reduced problem solving time, and retained expert knowledge and experience. Phase 2 of the project is intended to provide NASA the necessary expertise and capability to define requirements, evaluate proposals, and monitor the development progress of a highly competent expert system for NASA's Tracking Data Relay Satellite. Phase 2 also envisions addressing two unexplored applications for expert systems, spacecraft integration and tests (I and T) and support to launch activities. The concept, goals, domain, tools, knowledge acquisition, developmental approach, and design of the expert system. It will explain how NASA obtained the knowledge and capability to develop the system in-house without assistance from outside consultants. Future plans will also be presented.

Expert systems applied to spacecraft fire safety

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Smith, Richard L.; Kashiwagi, Takashi

1989-01-01

Expert systems are problem-solving programs that combine a knowledge base and a reasoning mechanism to simulate a human expert. The development of an expert system to manage fire safety in spacecraft, in particular the NASA Space Station Freedom, is difficult but clearly advantageous in the long-term. Some needs in low-gravity flammability characteristics, ventilating-flow effects, fire detection, fire extinguishment, and decision models, all necessary to establish the knowledge base for an expert system, are discussed.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

MacAllister, D.J.; Day, R.; McCormack, M.D.

This paper gives an overview of a major integrated oil company`s experience with artificial intelligence (AI) over the last 5 years, with an emphasis on expert systems. The authors chronicle the development of an AI group, including details on development tool selection, project selection strategies, potential pitfalls, and descriptions of several completed expert systems. Small expert systems produced by teams of petroleum technology experts and experienced expert system developers that are focused in well-defined technical areas have produced substantial benefits and accelerated petroleum technology transfer.

An expert systems approach to automated fault management in a regenerative life support subsystem

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Malin, J. T.; Lance, N., Jr.

1986-01-01

This paper describes FIXER, a prototype expert system for automated fault management in a regenerative life support subsystem typical of Space Station applications. The development project provided an evaluation of the use of expert systems technology to enhance controller functions in space subsystems. The software development approach permitted evaluation of the effectiveness of direct involvement of the expert in design and development. The approach also permitted intensive observation of the knowledge and methods of the expert. This paper describes the development of the prototype expert system and presents results of the evaluation.

A parallel coordinates style interface for exploratory volume visualization.

PubMed

Tory, Melanie; Potts, Simeon; Möller, Torsten

2005-01-01

We present a user interface, based on parallel coordinates, that facilitates exploration of volume data. By explicitly representing the visualization parameter space, the interface provides an overview of rendering options and enables users to easily explore different parameters. Rendered images are stored in an integrated history bar that facilitates backtracking to previous visualization options. Initial usability testing showed clear agreement between users and experts of various backgrounds (usability, graphic design, volume visualization, and medical physics) that the proposed user interface is a valuable data exploration tool.

Evolution of a research prototype expert system for endemic populations of mountain pine beetle in lodgepole pine forests

Treesearch

Dale L. Bartos; Kent B. Downing

1989-01-01

A knowledge acquisition program was written to aid in obtaining knowledge from the experts concerning endemic populations of mountain pine beetle in lodgepole pine forest. An application expert system is then automatically generated by the knowledge acquisition program that contains the codified base of expert knowledge. Data can then be entered into the expert system...

An SSME High Pressure Oxidizer Turbopump diagnostic system using G2 real-time expert system

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Guo, Ten-Huei

1991-01-01

An expert system which diagnoses various seal leakage faults in the High Pressure Oxidizer Turbopump of the SSME was developed using G2 real-time expert system. Three major functions of the software were implemented: model-based data generation, real-time expert system reasoning, and real-time input/output communication. This system is proposed as one module of a complete diagnostic system for the SSME. Diagnosis of a fault is defined as the determination of its type, severity, and likelihood. Since fault diagnosis is often accomplished through the use of heuristic human knowledge, an expert system based approach has been adopted as a paradigm to develop this diagnostic system. To implement this approach, a software shell which can be easily programmed to emulate the human decision process, the G2 Real-Time Expert System, was selected. Lessons learned from this implementation are discussed.

An SSME high pressure oxidizer turbopump diagnostic system using G2(TM) real-time expert system

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Guo, Ten-Huei

1991-01-01

An expert system which diagnoses various seal leakage faults in the High Pressure Oxidizer Turbopump of the SSME was developed using G2(TM) real-time expert system. Three major functions of the software were implemented: model-based data generation, real-time expert system reasoning, and real-time input/output communication. This system is proposed as one module of a complete diagnostic system for Space Shuttle Main Engine. Diagnosis of a fault is defined as the determination of its type, severity, and likelihood. Since fault diagnosis is often accomplished through the use of heuristic human knowledge, an expert system based approach was adopted as a paradigm to develop this diagnostic system. To implement this approach, a software shell which can be easily programmed to emulate the human decision process, the G2 Real-Time Expert System, was selected. Lessons learned from this implementation are discussed.

Operation and Structure of an Artificial Intelligence Expert Consultative System for Reading and Learning.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Balajthy, Ernest

1989-01-01

The article examines decision-making expert systems and discusses their implications for diagnosis and prescription of reading difficulties. A detailed description of how a reading diagnostic expert system might operate to aid classroom teachers is followed by a discussion of advantages and limitations of expert systems for educational use.…

EXSPRT: An Expert Systems Approach to Computer-Based Adaptive Testing.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Frick, Theodore W.; And Others

Expert systems can be used to aid decision making. A computerized adaptive test (CAT) is one kind of expert system, although it is not commonly recognized as such. A new approach, termed EXSPRT, was devised that combines expert systems reasoning and sequential probability ratio test stopping rules. EXSPRT-R uses random selection of test items,…

Expert database system for quality control

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, Anne J.; Li, Zhi-Cheng

1993-09-01

There are more competitors today. Markets are not homogeneous they are fragmented into increasingly focused niches requiring greater flexibility in the product mix shorter manufacturing production runs and above allhigher quality. In this paper the author identified a real-time expert system as a way to improve plantwide quality management. The quality control expert database system (QCEDS) by integrating knowledge of experts in operations quality management and computer systems use all information relevant to quality managementfacts as well as rulesto determine if a product meets quality standards. Keywords: expert system quality control data base

Parallel processing and expert systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Yan, Jerry C.; Lau, Sonie

1991-01-01

Whether it be monitoring the thermal subsystem of Space Station Freedom, or controlling the navigation of the autonomous rover on Mars, NASA missions in the 90's cannot enjoy an increased level of autonomy without the efficient use of expert systems. Merely increasing the computational speed of uniprocessors may not be able to guarantee that real time demands are met for large expert systems. Speed-up via parallel processing must be pursued alongside the optimization of sequential implementations. Prototypes of parallel expert systems have been built at universities and industrial labs in the U.S. and Japan. The state-of-the-art research in progress related to parallel execution of expert systems was surveyed. The survey is divided into three major sections: (1) multiprocessors for parallel expert systems; (2) parallel languages for symbolic computations; and (3) measurements of parallelism of expert system. Results to date indicate that the parallelism achieved for these systems is small. In order to obtain greater speed-ups, data parallelism and application parallelism must be exploited.

Fault isolation detection expert (FIDEX). Part 1: Expert system diagnostics for a 30/20 Gigahertz satellite transponder

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Durkin, John; Schlegelmilch, Richard; Tallo, Donald

1992-01-01

LeRC has recently completed the design of a Ka-band satellite transponder system, as part of the Advanced Communication Technology Satellite (ACTS) System. To enhance the reliability of this satellite, NASA funded the University of Akron to explore the application of an expert system to provide the transponder with an autonomous diagnosis capability. The results of this research was the development of a prototype diagnosis expert system called FIDEX (fault-isolation and diagnosis expert). FIDEX is a frame-based expert system that was developed in the NEXPERT Object development environment by Neuron Data, Inc. It is a MicroSoft Windows version 3.0 application, and was designed to operate on an Intel i80386 based personal computer system.

Ethical Expert Systems

PubMed Central

Victoroff, Michael S.

1985-01-01

The title is a double entendre. The discussion approaches expert systems from two directions: “What ethical hazards are created by expert systems in medicine?” and “Would it be ethical to design an expert system for solving problems in bioethics?” Computers present new ethical problems to society, some of which are unprecedented. These can be categorized under several rubrics. The paper describes a rudimentary scheme for understanding ethical issues raised by computers, in general, and medical expert systems, in particular. It focuses on bioethical implications of AI in medicine; explores norms, assumptions and taboos; and highlights certain ethical pitfalls. Principles are elucidated, for building ethically sound systems. Finally, a proposal is discussed, for the design of an expert system for moral problem solving, and the ethical implications of this notion are analyzed.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Miller, M.; Kempner, L. Jr.; Mueller, W. III

The concept of an Expert System is not new. It has been around since the days of the early computers when scientists had dreams of robot automation to do everything from washing windows to automobile design. This paper discusses an application of an expert system and addresses software development issues and various levels of expert system development form a structural engineering viewpoint. An expert system designed to aid the structural engineer in first order inelastic analysis of latticed steel transmission powers is presented. The utilization of expert systems with large numerical analysis programs is discussed along with the software developmentmore » of such a system.« less

CLEAR: Communications Link Expert Assistance Resource

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hull, Larry G.; Hughes, Peter M.

1987-01-01

Communications Link Expert Assistance Resource (CLEAR) is a real time, fault diagnosis expert system for the Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) Mission Operations Room (MOR). The CLEAR expert system is an operational prototype which assists the MOR operator/analyst by isolating and diagnosing faults in the spacecraft communication link with the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite (TDRS) during periods of realtime data acquisition. The mission domain, user requirements, hardware configuration, expert system concept, tool selection, development approach, and system design were discussed. Development approach and system implementation are emphasized. Also discussed are system architecture, tool selection, operation, and future plans.

Design and implementation of a status at a glance user interface for a power distribution expert system

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Liberman, Eugene M.; Manner, David B.; Dolce, James L.; Mellor, Pamela A.

1993-01-01

Expert systems are widely used in health monitoring and fault detection applications. One of the key features of an expert system is that it possesses a large body of knowledge about the application for which it was designed. When the user consults this knowledge base, it is essential that the expert system's reasoning process and its conclusions be as concise as possible. If, in addition, an expert system is part of a process monitoring system, the expert system's conclusions must be combined with current events of the process. Under these circumstances, it is difficult for a user to absorb and respond to all the available information. For example, a user can become distracted and confused if two or more unrelated devices in different parts of the system require attention. A human interface designed to integrate expert system diagnoses with process data and to focus the user's attention to the important matters provides a solution to the 'information overload' problem. This paper will discuss a user interface to the power distribution expert system for Space Station Freedom. The importance of features which simplify assessing system status and which minimize navigating through layers of information will be discussed. Design rationale and implementation choices will also be presented.

Developing a Web-Based Advisory Expert System for Implementing Traffic Calming Strategies

PubMed Central

Falamarzi, Amir; Borhan, Muhamad Nazri; Rahmat, Riza Atiq O. K.

2014-01-01

Lack of traffic safety has become a serious issue in residential areas. In this paper, a web-based advisory expert system for the purpose of applying traffic calming strategies on residential streets is described because there currently lacks a structured framework for the implementation of such strategies. Developing an expert system can assist and advise engineers for dealing with traffic safety problems. This expert system is developed to fill the gap between the traffic safety experts and people who seek to employ traffic calming strategies including decision makers, engineers, and students. In order to build the expert system, examining sources related to traffic calming studies as well as interviewing with domain experts have been carried out. The system includes above 150 rules and 200 images for different types of measures. The system has three main functions including classifying traffic calming measures, prioritizing traffic calming strategies, and presenting solutions for different traffic safety problems. Verifying, validating processes, and comparing the system with similar works have shown that the system is consistent and acceptable for practical uses. Finally, some recommendations for improving the system are presented. PMID:25276861

Developing a web-based advisory expert system for implementing traffic calming strategies.

PubMed

Falamarzi, Amir; Borhan, Muhamad Nazri; Rahmat, Riza Atiq O K

2014-01-01

Lack of traffic safety has become a serious issue in residential areas. In this paper, a web-based advisory expert system for the purpose of applying traffic calming strategies on residential streets is described because there currently lacks a structured framework for the implementation of such strategies. Developing an expert system can assist and advise engineers for dealing with traffic safety problems. This expert system is developed to fill the gap between the traffic safety experts and people who seek to employ traffic calming strategies including decision makers, engineers, and students. In order to build the expert system, examining sources related to traffic calming studies as well as interviewing with domain experts have been carried out. The system includes above 150 rules and 200 images for different types of measures. The system has three main functions including classifying traffic calming measures, prioritizing traffic calming strategies, and presenting solutions for different traffic safety problems. Verifying, validating processes, and comparing the system with similar works have shown that the system is consistent and acceptable for practical uses. Finally, some recommendations for improving the system are presented.

Executive system software design and expert system implementation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Allen, Cheryl L.

1992-01-01

The topics are presented in viewgraph form and include: software requirements; design layout of the automated assembly system; menu display for automated composite command; expert system features; complete robot arm state diagram and logic; and expert system benefits.

Expert Systems in Reference Services.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Roysdon, Christine, Ed.; White, Howard D., Ed.

1989-01-01

Eleven articles introduce expert systems applications in library and information science, and present design and implementation issues of system development for reference services. Topics covered include knowledge based systems, prototype development, the use of artificial intelligence to remedy current system inadequacies, and an expert system to…

Northeast Artificial Intelligence Consortium Annual Report 1987. Volume 2. Part A. The Versatile Maintenance Expert System (VMES) Research Project

DTIC Science & Technology

1989-03-01

DI _1.3)))an also the wire connecting m419 (id (3))( (tp (P-PORT))(port-of rDim) (m88 ( l l ) (type (P-PORT)) (port-of ( DI -1.1))) (m428 (id (2)) (type (P...research on this project had two dis - tinct but overlapping phases: consolidation of work done during the previous two years and developing new...diagnosis when VMES notices a diagnostic short-cut from the dual device model is present; this will be dis - cussed in the section of "Dual Device Model

Optimization of cyanide extraction from wastewater using emulsion liquid membrane system by response surface methodology.

PubMed

Xue, Juan Qin; Liu, Ni Na; Li, Guo Ping; Dang, Long Tao

To solve the disposal problem of cyanide wastewater, removal of cyanide from wastewater using a water-in-oil emulsion type of emulsion liquid membrane (ELM) was studied in this work. Specifically, the effects of surfactant Span-80, carrier trioctylamine (TOA), stripping agent NaOH solution and the emulsion-to-external-phase-volume ratio on removal of cyanide were investigated. Removal of total cyanide was determined using the silver nitrate titration method. Regression analysis and optimization of the conditions were conducted using the Design-Expert software and response surface methodology (RSM). The actual cyanide removals and the removals predicted using RSM analysis were in close agreement, and the optimal conditions were determined to be as follows: the volume fraction of Span-80, 4% (v/v); the volume fraction of TOA, 4% (v/v); the concentration of NaOH, 1% (w/v); and the emulsion-to-external-phase volume ratio, 1:7. Under the optimum conditions, the removal of total cyanide was 95.07%, and the RSM predicted removal was 94.90%, with a small exception. The treatment of cyanide wastewater using an ELM is an effective technique for application in industry.

Development and practice of a Telehealthcare Expert System (TES).

PubMed

Lin, Hanjun; Hsu, Yeh-Liang; Hsu, Ming-Shinn; Cheng, Chih-Ming

2013-07-01

Expert systems have been widely used in medical and healthcare practice for various purposes. In addition to vital sign data, important concerns in telehealthcare include the compliance with the measurement prescription, the accuracy of vital sign measurements, and the functioning of vital sign meters and home gateways. However, few expert system applications are found in the telehealthcare domain to address these issues. This article presents an expert system application for one of the largest commercialized telehealthcare practices in Taiwan by Min-Sheng General Hospital. The main function of the Telehealthcare Expert System (TES) developed in this research is to detect and classify events based on the measurement data transmitted to the database at the call center, including abnormality of vital signs, violation of vital sign measurement prescriptions, and malfunction of hardware devices (home gateway and vital sign meter). When the expert system detects an abnormal event, it assigns an "urgent degree" and alerts the nursing team in the call center to take action, such as phoning the patient for counseling or to urge the patient to return to the hospital for further tests. During 2 years of clinical practice, from 2009 to 2011, 19,182 patients were served by the expert system. The expert system detected 41,755 events, of which 22.9% indicated abnormality of vital signs, 75.2% indicated violation of measurement prescription, and 1.9% indicated malfunction of devices. On average, the expert system reduced by 76.5% the time that the nursing team in the call center spent in handling the events. The expert system helped to reduce cost and improve quality of the telehealthcare service.

An SQL query generator for CLIPS

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Snyder, James; Chirica, Laurian

1990-01-01

As expert systems become more widely used, their access to large amounts of external information becomes increasingly important. This information exists in several forms such as statistical, tabular data, knowledge gained by experts and large databases of information maintained by companies. Because many expert systems, including CLIPS, do not provide access to this external information, much of the usefulness of expert systems is left untapped. The scope of this paper is to describe a database extension for the CLIPS expert system shell. The current industry standard database language is SQL. Due to SQL standardization, large amounts of information stored on various computers, potentially at different locations, will be more easily accessible. Expert systems should be able to directly access these existing databases rather than requiring information to be re-entered into the expert system environment. The ORACLE relational database management system (RDBMS) was used to provide a database connection within the CLIPS environment. To facilitate relational database access a query generation system was developed as a CLIPS user function. The queries are entered in a CLlPS-like syntax and are passed to the query generator, which constructs and submits for execution, an SQL query to the ORACLE RDBMS. The query results are asserted as CLIPS facts. The query generator was developed primarily for use within the ICADS project (Intelligent Computer Aided Design System) currently being developed by the CAD Research Unit in the California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly). In ICADS, there are several parallel or distributed expert systems accessing a common knowledge base of facts. Expert system has a narrow domain of interest and therefore needs only certain portions of the information. The query generator provides a common method of accessing this information and allows the expert system to specify what data is needed without specifying how to retrieve it.

An investigation into pilot and system response to critical in-flight events. Volume 2: Appendix

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Rockwell, T. H.; Griffin, W. C.

1981-01-01

Materials relating to the study of pilot and system response to critical in-flight events (CIFE) are given. An annotated bibliography and a trip summary outline are presented, as are knowledge surveys with accompanying answer keys. Performance profiles of pilots and performance data from the simulations of CIFE's are given. The paper and pencil testing materials are reproduced. Conditions for the use of the additive model are discussed. A master summary of data for the destination diversion scenario is given. An interview with an aircraft mechanic demonstrates the feasibility of system problem diagnosis from a verbal description of symptoms and shows the information seeking and problem solving logic used by an expert to narrow the list of probable causes of aircraft failure.

Cataloging Expert Systems: Optimism and Frustrated Reality.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Olmstadt, William J.

2000-01-01

Discusses artificial intelligence and attempts to catalog expert systems. Topics include the nature of expertise; examples of cataloging expert systems; barriers to implementation; and problems, including total automation, cataloging expertise, priorities, and system design. (LRW)

Functional Requirements of an Advanced Instructional Design Advisor: Task Analysis and Troubleshooting Volume 2

DTIC Science & Technology

1992-09-01

would be relevant to constructing a transactional shell that could be used by a person who is a subject matter expert, but a novice instructional designer...or other data, is not to be regarded by implication, or otherwise in any manner construed, as licensing the holder, or any other person or...process of producing effective computer-based instructional materials is complex and time- consuming . Few experts exist to ensure the effectiveness of

Quality versus Quantity Debate in Swimming: Perceptions and Training Practices of Expert Swimming Coaches.

PubMed

Nugent, Frank J; Comyns, Thomas M; Warrington, Giles D

2017-06-01

The debate over low-volume, high-intensity training versus high-volume, low-intensity training, commonly known as Quality versus Quantity, respectively, is a frequent topic of discussion among swimming coaches and academics. The aim of this study was to explore expert coaches' perceptions of quality and quantity coaching philosophies in competitive swimming and to investigate their current training practices. A purposeful sample of 11 expert swimming coaches was recruited for this study. The study was a mixed methods design and involved each coach participating in 1 semi-structured interview and completing 1 closed-ended questionnaire. The main findings of this study were that coaches felt quality training programmes would lead to short term results for youth swimmers, but were in many cases more appropriate for senior swimmers. The coaches suggested that quantity training programmes built an aerobic base for youth swimmers, promoted technical development through a focus on slower swimming and helped to enhance recovery from training or competition. However, the coaches continuously suggested that quantity training programmes must be performed with good technique and they felt this was a misunderstood element. This study was a critical step towards gaining a richer and broader understanding on the debate over Quality versus Quantity training from an expert swimming coaches' perspective which was not currently available in the research literature.

Quality versus Quantity Debate in Swimming: Perceptions and Training Practices of Expert Swimming Coaches

PubMed Central

Nugent, Frank J; Comyns, Thomas M; Warrington, Giles D

2017-01-01

Abstract The debate over low-volume, high-intensity training versus high-volume, low-intensity training, commonly known as Quality versus Quantity, respectively, is a frequent topic of discussion among swimming coaches and academics. The aim of this study was to explore expert coaches’ perceptions of quality and quantity coaching philosophies in competitive swimming and to investigate their current training practices. A purposeful sample of 11 expert swimming coaches was recruited for this study. The study was a mixed methods design and involved each coach participating in 1 semi-structured interview and completing 1 closed-ended questionnaire. The main findings of this study were that coaches felt quality training programmes would lead to short term results for youth swimmers, but were in many cases more appropriate for senior swimmers. The coaches suggested that quantity training programmes built an aerobic base for youth swimmers, promoted technical development through a focus on slower swimming and helped to enhance recovery from training or competition. However, the coaches continuously suggested that quantity training programmes must be performed with good technique and they felt this was a misunderstood element. This study was a critical step towards gaining a richer and broader understanding on the debate over Quality versus Quantity training from an expert swimming coaches’ perspective which was not currently available in the research literature. PMID:28713467

Development of an instructional expert system for hole drilling processes

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Al-Mutawa, Souhaila; Srinivas, Vijay; Moon, Young Bai

1990-01-01

An expert system which captures the expertise of workshop technicians in the drilling domain was developed. The expert system is aimed at novice technicians who know how to operate the machines but have not acquired the decision making skills that are gained with experience. This paper describes the domain background and the stages of development of the expert system.

Automated outcome scoring in a virtual reality simulator for endodontic surgery.

PubMed

Yin, Myat Su; Haddawy, Peter; Suebnukarn, Siriwan; Rhienmora, Phattanapon

2018-01-01

We address the problem of automated outcome assessment in a virtual reality (VR) simulator for endodontic surgery. Outcome assessment is an essential component of any system that provides formative feedback, which requires assessing the outcome, relating it to the procedure, and communicating in a language natural to dental students. This study takes a first step toward automated generation of such comprehensive feedback. Virtual reference templates are computed based on tooth anatomy and the outcome is assessed with a 3D score cube volume which consists of voxel-level non-linear weighted scores based on the templates. The detailed scores are transformed into standard scoring language used by dental schools. The system was evaluated on fifteen outcome samples that contained optimal results and those with errors including perforation of the walls, floor, and both, as well as various combinations of major and minor over and under drilling errors. Five endodontists who had professional training and varying levels of experiences in root canal treatment participated as raters in the experiment. Results from evaluation of our system with expert endodontists show a high degree of agreement with expert scores (information based measure of disagreement 0.04-0.21). At the same time they show some disagreement among human expert scores, reflecting the subjective nature of human outcome scoring. The discriminatory power of the AOS scores analyzed with three grade tiers (A, B, C) using the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC). The AUC values are generally highest for the {AB: C} cutoff which is cutoff at the boundary between clinically acceptable (B) and clinically unacceptable (C) grades. The objective consistency of computed scores and high degree of agreement with experts make the proposed system a promising addition to existing VR simulators. The translation of detailed level scores into terminology commonly used in dental surgery supports natural communication with students and instructors. With the reference virtual templates created automatically, the approach is robust and is applicable in scoring the outcome of any dental surgery procedure involving the act of drilling. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

A parallel expert system for the control of a robotic air vehicle

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Shakley, Donald; Lamont, Gary B.

1988-01-01

Expert systems can be used to govern the intelligent control of vehicles, for example the Robotic Air Vehicle (RAV). Due to the nature of the RAV system the associated expert system needs to perform in a demanding real-time environment. The use of a parallel processing capability to support the associated expert system's computational requirement is critical in this application. Thus, algorithms for parallel real-time expert systems must be designed, analyzed, and synthesized. The design process incorporates a consideration of the rule-set/face-set size along with representation issues. These issues are looked at in reference to information movement and various inference mechanisms. Also examined is the process involved with transporting the RAV expert system functions from the TI Explorer, where they are implemented in the Automated Reasoning Tool (ART), to the iPSC Hypercube, where the system is synthesized using Concurrent Common LISP (CCLISP). The transformation process for the ART to CCLISP conversion is described. The performance characteristics of the parallel implementation of these expert systems on the iPSC Hypercube are compared to the TI Explorer implementation.

Innovation on Energy Power Technology (22)Challenge to Development of Expert System stored Knowledge of Expert Power Network Operators

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sakaguchi, Hideharu

Do you remember an expert system? I think there are various impressions about the system. For example, some might say “It reminds me of old days”. On the other hand, some might say “It was really troublesome”. About 25 years ago, from late 1980s to the middle of 1990s, when the Showa era was about to change into the Heisei Era, artificial intelligence boomed. Research and development for an expert system which was equipped with expertise and worked as smart as expert, was advanced in various fields. Our company also picked up the system as the new system which covered weak point of conventional computer technology. We started research and development in 1984, and installed an expert system in a SCADA system, which started operating in March 1990 in the Fukuoka Integrated Control Center. In this essay, as an electric power engineer who involved in development at that time, I introduce the situation and travail story about developing an expert system which support restorative actions from the outage and overload condition of power networks.

Cooperating Expert Systems For Space Station Power Distribution Management

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nguyen, T. A.; Chiou, W. C.

1987-02-01

In a complex system such as the manned Space Station, it is deem necessary that many expert systems must perform tasks in a concurrent and cooperative manner. An important question arise is: what cooperative-task-performing models are appropriate for multiple expert systems to jointly perform tasks. The solution to this question will provide a crucial automation design criteria for the Space Station complex systems architecture. Based on a client/server model for performing tasks, we have developed a system that acts as a front-end to support loosely-coupled communications between expert systems running on multiple Symbolics machines. As an example, we use two ART*-based expert systems to demonstrate the concept of parallel symbolic manipulation for power distribution management and dynamic load planner/scheduler in the simulated Space Station environment. This on-going work will also explore other cooperative-task-performing models as alternatives which can evaluate inter and intra expert system communication mechanisms. It will be served as a testbed and a bench-marking tool for other Space Station expert subsystem communication and information exchange.

A software engineering approach to expert system design and verification

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bochsler, Daniel C.; Goodwin, Mary Ann

1988-01-01

Software engineering design and verification methods for developing expert systems are not yet well defined. Integration of expert system technology into software production environments will require effective software engineering methodologies to support the entire life cycle of expert systems. The software engineering methods used to design and verify an expert system, RENEX, is discussed. RENEX demonstrates autonomous rendezvous and proximity operations, including replanning trajectory events and subsystem fault detection, onboard a space vehicle during flight. The RENEX designers utilized a number of software engineering methodologies to deal with the complex problems inherent in this system. An overview is presented of the methods utilized. Details of the verification process receive special emphasis. The benefits and weaknesses of the methods for supporting the development life cycle of expert systems are evaluated, and recommendations are made based on the overall experiences with the methods.

Development of an expert system prototype for determining software functional requirements for command management activities at NASA Goddard

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Liebowitz, J.

1986-01-01

The development of an expert system prototype for software functional requirement determination for NASA Goddard's Command Management System, as part of its process of transforming general requests into specific near-earth satellite commands, is described. The present knowledge base was formulated through interactions with domain experts, and was then linked to the existing Knowledge Engineering Systems (KES) expert system application generator. Steps in the knowledge-base development include problem-oriented attribute hierarchy development, knowledge management approach determination, and knowledge base encoding. The KES Parser and Inspector, in addition to backcasting and analogical mapping, were used to validate the expert system-derived requirements for one of the major functions of a spacecraft, the solar Maximum Mission. Knowledge refinement, evaluation, and implementation procedures of the expert system were then accomplished.

CLIPS: An expert system building tool

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Riley, Gary

1991-01-01

The C Language Integrated Production System (CLIPS) is an expert system building tool, which provides a complete environment for the development and delivery of rule and/or object based expert systems. CLIPS was specifically designed to provide a low cost option for developing and deploying expert system applications across a wide range of hardware platforms. The commercial potential of CLIPS is vast. Currently, CLIPS is being used by over 3,300 individuals throughout the public and private sector. Because the CLIPS source code is readily available, numerous groups have used CLIPS as a basis for their own expert system tools. To date, three commercially available tools have been derived from CLIPS. In general, the development of CLIPS has helped to improve the ability to deliver expert system technology throughout the public and private sectors for a wide range of applications and diverse computing environments.

System of experts for intelligent data management (SEIDAM)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Goodenough, David G.; Iisaka, Joji; Fung, KO

1993-01-01

A proposal to conduct research and development on a system of expert systems for intelligent data management (SEIDAM) is being developed. CCRS has much expertise in developing systems for integrating geographic information with space and aircraft remote sensing data and in managing large archives of remotely sensed data. SEIDAM will be composed of expert systems grouped in three levels. At the lowest level, the expert systems will manage and integrate data from diverse sources, taking account of symbolic representation differences and varying accuracies. Existing software can be controlled by these expert systems, without rewriting existing software into an Artificial Intelligence (AI) language. At the second level, SEIDAM will take the interpreted data (symbolic and numerical) and combine these with data models. at the top level, SEIDAM will respond to user goals for predictive outcomes given existing data. The SEIDAM Project will address the research areas of expert systems, data management, storage and retrieval, and user access and interfaces.

System of Experts for Intelligent Data Management (SEIDAM)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Goodenough, David G.; Iisaka, Joji; Fung, KO

1992-01-01

It is proposed to conduct research and development on a system of expert systems for intelligent data management (SEIDAM). CCRS has much expertise in developing systems for integrating geographic information with space and aircraft remote sensing data and in managing large archives of remotely sensed data. SEIDAM will be composed of expert systems grouped in three levels. At the lowest level, the expert systems will manage and integrate data from diverse sources, taking account of symbolic representation differences and varying accuracies. Existing software can be controlled by these expert systems, without rewriting existing software into an Artificial Intelligence (AI) language. At the second level, SEIDAM will take the interpreted data (symbolic and numerical) and combine these with data models. At the top level, SEIDAM will respond to user goals for predictive outcomes given existing data. The SEIDAM Project will address the research areas of expert systems, data management, storage and retrieval, and user access and interfaces.

TES: A modular systems approach to expert system development for real-time space applications

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Cacace, Ralph; England, Brenda

1988-01-01

A major goal of the Space Station era is to reduce reliance on support from ground based experts. The development of software programs using expert systems technology is one means of reaching this goal without requiring crew members to become intimately familiar with the many complex spacecraft subsystems. Development of an expert systems program requires a validation of the software with actual flight hardware. By combining accurate hardware and software modelling techniques with a modular systems approach to expert systems development, the validation of these software programs can be successfully completed with minimum risk and effort. The TIMES Expert System (TES) is an application that monitors and evaluates real time data to perform fault detection and fault isolation tasks as they would otherwise be carried out by a knowledgeable designer. The development process and primary features of TES, a modular systems approach, and the lessons learned are discussed.

Factors Impacting Habitable Volume Requirements: Results from the 2011 Habitable Volume Workshop

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Simon, M.; Whitmire, A.; Otto, C.; Neubek, D. (Editor)

2011-01-01

This report documents the results of the Habitable Volume Workshop held April 18-21, 2011 in Houston, TX at the Center for Advanced Space Studies-Universities Space Research Association. The workshop was convened by NASA to examine the factors that feed into understanding minimum habitable volume requirements for long duration space missions. While there have been confinement studies and analogs that have provided the basis for the guidance found in current habitability standards, determining the adequacy of the volume for future long duration exploration missions is a more complicated endeavor. It was determined that an improved understanding of the relationship between behavioral and psychosocial stressors, available habitable and net habitable volume, and interior layouts was needed to judge the adequacy of long duration habitat designs. The workshop brought together a multi-disciplinary group of experts from the medical and behavioral sciences, spaceflight, human habitability disciplines and design professionals. These subject matter experts identified the most salient design-related stressors anticipated for a long duration exploration mission. The selected stressors were based on scientific evidence, as well as personal experiences from spaceflight and analogs. They were organized into eight major categories: allocation of space; workspace; general and individual control of environment; sensory deprivation; social monotony; crew composition; physical and medical issues; and contingency readiness. Mitigation strategies for the identified stressors and their subsequent impact to habitat design were identified. Recommendations for future research to address the stressors and mitigating design impacts are presented.

Autonomously acquiring declarative and procedural knowledge for ICAT systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kovarik, Vincent J., Jr.

1993-01-01

The construction of Intelligent Computer Aided Training (ICAT) systems is critically dependent on the ability to define and encode knowledge. This knowledge engineering effort can be broadly divided into two categories: domain knowledge and expert or task knowledge. Domain knowledge refers to the physical environment or system with which the expert interacts. Expert knowledge consists of the set of procedures and heuristics employed by the expert in performing their task. Both these areas are a significant bottleneck in the acquisition of knowledge for ICAT systems. This paper presents a research project in the area of autonomous knowledge acquisition using a passive observation concept. The system observes an expert and then generalizes the observations into production rules representing the domain expert's knowledge.

Expert networks in CLIPS

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hruska, S. I.; Dalke, A.; Ferguson, J. J.; Lacher, R. C.

1991-01-01

Rule-based expert systems may be structurally and functionally mapped onto a special class of neural networks called expert networks. This mapping lends itself to adaptation of connectionist learning strategies for the expert networks. A parsing algorithm to translate C Language Integrated Production System (CLIPS) rules into a network of interconnected assertion and operation nodes has been developed. The translation of CLIPS rules to an expert network and back again is illustrated. Measures of uncertainty similar to those rules in MYCIN-like systems are introduced into the CLIPS system and techniques for combining and hiring nodes in the network based on rule-firing with these certainty factors in the expert system are presented. Several learning algorithms are under study which automate the process of attaching certainty factors to rules.

RAMBOT: A Connectionist Expert System That Learns by Example.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mozer, Michael C.

One solution to the problem of getting expert knowledge into expert systems would be to endow the systems with powerful learning procedures that could discover appropriate behaviors by observing an expert in action. A promising source of such learning procedures can be found in recent work on connectionist networks, which are massively parallel…

In Defense of the Alien. Volume IV. U.S. Immigration Today. Proceedings of the Annual National Legal Conference (Washington, D.C., March 26-27, 1981).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tomasi, Lydio F., Ed.; And Others

This volume presents viewpoints of government representatives, legal experts, economists, and private sector representatives on recommendations for reforms in U.S. immigration policy and legislation submitted to the President and to Congress by the Select Commission on Immigration and Refugee Policy. Included are: (1) a report of issues considered…

Blood-Banking Techniques for Plateletpheresis in Swine

DTIC Science & Technology

2014-05-01

automatically calculates the blood volume for that patient according to an internal formula . However, to circumvent the human-based algorithm, for a 60-kg...blood volume (µL) in the percentage recovery formula given earlier. The maximal recovery percent- age was calculated by setting the 3-min results to 100...Control Resuscitation Department, the Veterinary Support Department, and the Laboratory Support Department for their expert technical assistance

Tools and technologies for expert systems: A human factors perspective

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Rajaram, Navaratna S.

1987-01-01

It is widely recognized that technologies based on artificial intelligence (AI), especially expert systems, can make significant contributions to the productivity and effectiveness of operations of information and knowledge intensive organizations such as NASA. At the same time, these being relatively new technologies, there is the problem of transfering technology to key personnel of such organizations. The problems of examining the potential of expert systems and of technology transfer is addressed in the context of human factors applications. One of the topics of interest was the investigation of the potential use of expert system building tools, particularly NEXPERT as a technology transfer medium. Two basic conclusions were reached in this regard. First, NEXPERT is an excellent tool for rapid prototyping of experimental expert systems, but not ideal as a delivery vehicle. Therefore, it is not a substitute for general purpose system implementation languages such a LISP or C. This assertion probably holds for nearly all such tools on the market today. Second, an effective technology transfer mechanism is to formulate and implement expert systems for problems which members of the organization in question can relate to. For this purpose, the LIghting EnGineering Expert (LIEGE) was implemented using NEXPERT as the tool for technology transfer and to illustrate the value of expert systems to the activities of the Man-System Division.

An Expert System Solution for the Quantitative Condition Assessment of Electrical Distribution Systems in the United States Air Force

DTIC Science & Technology

1991-09-01

Distribution system ... ......... 4 2. Architechture of an Expert system .. .............. 66 vi List of Tables Table Page 1. Prototype Component Model...expert system to properly process work requests Ln civil engineering (8:23). Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI). EPRI is a private organization ...used (51) Training Level. The level of training shop technicians receive, and the resulting proficiency, are important in all organizations . Experts 1

Development of a coupled expert system for the spacecraft attitude control problem

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kawamura, K.; Beale, G.; Schaffer, J.; Hsieh, B.-J.; Padalkar, S.; Rodriguezmoscoso, J.; Vinz, F.; Fernandez, K.

1987-01-01

A majority of the current expert systems focus on the symbolic-oriented logic and inference mechanisms of artificial intelligence (AI). Common rule-based systems employ empirical associations and are not well suited to deal with problems often arising in engineering. Described is a prototype expert system which combines both symbolic and numeric computing. The expert system's configuration is presented and its application to a spacecraft attitude control problem is discussed.

IRCAD recommendation on safe laparoscopic cholecystectomy.

PubMed

Conrad, Claudius; Wakabayashi, Go; Asbun, Horacio J; Dallemagne, Bernard; Demartines, Nicolas; Diana, Michele; Fuks, David; Giménez, Mariano Eduardo; Goumard, Claire; Kaneko, Hironori; Memeo, Riccardo; Resende, Alexandre; Scatton, Olivier; Schneck, Anne-Sophie; Soubrane, Olivier; Tanabe, Minoru; van den Bos, Jacqueline; Weiss, Helmut; Yamamoto, Masakazu; Marescaux, Jacques; Pessaux, Patrick

2017-11-01

An expert recommendation conference was conducted to identify factors associated with adverse events during laparoscopic cholecystectomy (LC) with the goal of deriving expert recommendations for the reduction of biliary and vascular injury. Nineteen hepato-pancreato-biliary (HPB) surgeons from high-volume surgery centers in six countries comprised the Research Institute Against Cancer of the Digestive System (IRCAD) Recommendations Group. Systematic search of PubMed, Cochrane, and Embase was conducted. Using nominal group technique, structured group meetings were held to identify key items for safer LC. Consensus was achieved when 80% of respondents ranked an item as 1 or 2 (Likert scale 1-4). Seventy-one IRCAD HPB course participants assessed the expert recommendations which were compared to responses of 37 general surgery course participants. The IRCAD recommendations were structured in seven statements. The key topics included exposure of the operative field, appropriate use of energy device and establishment of the critical view of safety (CVS), systematic preoperative imaging, cholangiogram and alternative techniques, role of partial and dome-down (fundus-first) cholecystectomy. Highest consensus was achieved on the importance of the CVS as well as dome-down technique and partial cholecystectomy as alternative techniques. The put forward IRCAD recommendations may help to promote safe surgical practice of LC and initiate specific training to avoid adverse events. © 2017 Japanese Society of Hepato-Biliary-Pancreatic Surgery.

An Expert System for Diagnosing Eye Diseases using Forward Chaining Method

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Munaiseche, C. P. C.; Kaparang, D. R.; Rompas, P. T. D.

2018-02-01

Expert System is a system that seeks to adopt human knowledge to the computer, so that the computer can solve problems which are usually done by experts. The purpose of medical expert system is to support the diagnosis process of physicians. It considers facts and symptoms to provide diagnosis. This implies that a medical expert system uses knowledge about diseases and facts about the patients to suggest diagnosis. The aim of this research is to design an expert system application for diagnosing eye diseases using forward chaining method and to figure out user acceptance to this application through usability testing. Eye is selected because it is one of the five senses which is very sensitive and important. The scope of the work is extended to 16 types of eye diseases with 41 symptoms of the disease, arranged in 16 rules. The computer programming language employed was the PHP programming language and MySQL as the Relational Database Management System (RDBMS). The results obtained showed that the expert system was able to successfully diagnose eye diseases corresponding to the selected symptoms entered as query and the system evaluation through usability testing showed the expert system for diagnosis eye diseases had very good rate of usability, which includes learnability, efficiency, memorability, errors, and satisfaction so that the system can be received in the operational environment.

Expert Witness: A system for developing expert medical testimony

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lewandowski, Raymond; Perkins, David; Leasure, David

1994-01-01

Expert Witness in an expert system designed to assist attorneys and medical experts in determining the merit of medical malpractice claims in the area of obstetrics. It substitutes the time of the medical expert with the time of a paralegal assistant guided by the expert system during the initial investigation of the medical records and patient interviews. The product of the system is a narrative transcript containing important data, immediate conclusions from the data, and overall conclusions of the case that the attorney and medical expert use to make decisions about whether and how to proceed with the case. The transcript may also contain directives for gathering additional information needed for the case. The system is a modified heuristic classifier and is implemented using over 600 CLIPS rules together with a C-based user interface. The data abstraction and solution refinement are implemented directly using forward chaining production and matching. The use of CLIPS and C is essential to delivering a system that runs on a generic PC platform. The direct implementation in CLIPS together with locality of inference ensures that the system will scale gracefully. Two years of use has revealed no errors in the reasoning.

Variability in target delineation of cervical carcinoma: A Korean radiation oncology group study (KROG 15-06)

PubMed Central

Joo, Ji Hyeon; Cho, Byung Chul; Jeong, Chi Young; Park, Won; Kim, Hak Jae; Yoon, Won Sup; Yoon, Mee Sun; Kim, Ji-Yoon; Choi, Jin Hwa; Choi, Youngmin; Kim, Joo-Young

2017-01-01

Purpose To determine inter-observer variability in target volume definition of cervical cancer in radical and adjuvant radiotherapy (RT) settings. Methods Eight physicians contoured CTVs of 2 patients underwent definitive and postoperative RT. Each volume was analyzed using the individual/median volume ratio and generalized conformity index (CIgen). And center of mass (COM) of each contour was calculated. Expert agreement was quantified using an expectation maximization algorithm for Simultaneous Truth and Performance Level Estimation (STAPLE). Results For definitive RT, the individual/median volume ratio ranged from 0.51 to 1.41, and CIgen was 0.531. Mean 3-dimensional distances of average to each COM were 7.8 mm. For postoperative RT setting, corresponding values were 0.65–1.38, 0.563, and 5.3 mm. Kappa value of expert agreement was 0.65 and 0.67, respectively. STAPLE estimates of the sensitivity, specificity, and kappa measures of inter-physician agreement were 0.73, 0.98, and 0.65 for the definitive and 0.75, 0.98, and 0.67 for the adjuvant radiotherapy setting. The largest difference was observed in the superior-inferior direction, particularly in the upper vagina and the common iliac area. Conclusion As there was still some variability in target delineation, more detailed guidelines for target volume delineation and continuing education would help to reduce this uncertainty. PMID:28301492

[Development of expert diagnostic system for common respiratory diseases].

PubMed

Xu, Wei-hua; Chen, You-ling; Yan, Zheng

2014-03-01

To develop an internet-based expert diagnostic system for common respiratory diseases. SaaS system was used to build architecture; pattern of forward reasoning was applied for inference engine design; ASP.NET with C# from the tool pack of Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 was used for website-interview medical expert system.The database of the system was constructed with Microsoft SQL Server 2005. The developed expert system contained large data memory and high efficient function of data interview and data analysis for diagnosis of various diseases.The users were able to perform this system to obtain diagnosis for common respiratory diseases via internet. The developed expert system may be used for internet-based diagnosis of various respiratory diseases,particularly in telemedicine setting.

Knowledge-based systems for power management

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lollar, L. F.

1992-01-01

NASA-Marshall's Electrical Power Branch has undertaken the development of expert systems in support of further advancements in electrical power system automation. Attention is given to the features (1) of the Fault Recovery and Management Expert System, (2) a resource scheduler or Master of Automated Expert Scheduling Through Resource Orchestration, and (3) an adaptive load-priority manager, or Load Priority List Management System. The characteristics of an advisory battery manager for the Hubble Space Telescope, designated the 'nickel-hydrogen expert system', are also noted.

Dual-Use Space Technology Transfer Conference and Exhibition. Volume 1

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Krishen, Kumar (Compiler)

1994-01-01

This document contains papers presented at the Dual-Use Space Technology Transfer Conference and Exhibition held at the Johnson Space Center February 1-3, 1994. Possible technology transfers covered during the conference were in the areas of information access; innovative microwave and optical applications; materials and structures; marketing and barriers; intelligent systems; human factors and habitation; communications and data systems; business process and technology transfer; software engineering; biotechnology and advanced bioinstrumentation; communications signal processing and analysis; new ways of doing business; medical care; applications derived from control center data systems; human performance evaluation; technology transfer methods; mathematics, modeling, and simulation; propulsion; software analysis and decision tools systems/processes in human support technology; networks, control centers, and distributed systems; power; rapid development perception and vision technologies; integrated vehicle health management; automation technologies; advanced avionics; ans robotics technologies. More than 77 papers, 20 presentations, and 20 exhibits covering various disciplines were presented b experts from NASA, universities, and industry.

Reference standards, judges, and comparison subjects: roles for experts in evaluating system performance.

PubMed

Hripcsak, George; Wilcox, Adam

2002-01-01

Medical informatics systems are often designed to perform at the level of human experts. Evaluation of the performance of these systems is often constrained by lack of reference standards, either because the appropriate response is not known or because no simple appropriate response exists. Even when performance can be assessed, it is not always clear whether the performance is sufficient or reasonable. These challenges can be addressed if an evaluator enlists the help of clinical domain experts. 1) The experts can carry out the same tasks as the system, and then their responses can be combined to generate a reference standard. 2)The experts can judge the appropriateness of system output directly. 3) The experts can serve as comparison subjects with which the system can be compared. These are separate roles that have different implications for study design, metrics, and issues of reliability and validity. Diagrams help delineate the roles of experts in complex study designs.

Call-duration and triage decisions in out of hours cooperatives with and without the use of an expert system.

PubMed

Ong, Rob S G; Post, Johan; van Rooij, Harry; de Haan, Jan

2008-02-13

Cooperatives delivering out of hours care in the Netherlands are hesitant about the use of expert systems during triage. Apart from the extra costs, cooperatives are not sure that quality of triage is sufficiently enhanced by these systems and believe that call duration will be prolonged drastically. No figures about the influence of the use of an expert system during triage on call duration and triage decisions in out of hours care in the Netherlands are available. Electronically registered data concerning call duration and triage decisions were collected in two cooperatives. One in Tilburg, a cooperative in a Southern city of the Netherlands using an expert system, and one in Groningen, a cooperative in a Northern city not using an expert system. Some other relevant information about the care process was collected additionally. Data about call duration was compared using an independent sample t-test. Data about call decisions was compared using Chi Square. The mean call time in the cooperative using the TAS expert system is 4.6 minutes, in the cooperative not using the expert system 3.9 minutes. A significant difference of 0.7 minutes (0.4 - 1.0, 95% CI) minutes. In the cooperative with an expert system a larger percentage of patients is handled by the assistant, patients are less often referred to a telephone consultation with the GP and are less likely to be offered a visit by the GP.A quick interpretation of the impact of the difference in triage decisions, show that these may be large enough to support the hypothesis that longer call duration is compensated for by less contacts with the GP (by telephone or face-to-face). There is no proof, however, that these differences are caused by the use of the triage system. The larger amount of calls handled by the assistant may be partly caused by the fact that the assistants in the cooperative with an expert system more often consult the GP during triage. And it is not likely that the larger amount of home visits in Groningen can be attributed to the absence of an expert system. The expert system only offers advice whether a GP should be seen, not in which way (by consultation in the office or by home visit). The differences in call times between a cooperative using an expert system and a cooperative not using an expert system are small; 0.4 - 1.0 min. Differences in triage decisions were found, but it is not proven that these can be contributed to the use of an expert system.

Call-duration and triage decisions in out of hours cooperatives with and without the use of an expert system

PubMed Central

Ong, Rob SG; Post, Johan; van Rooij, Harry; de Haan, Jan

2008-01-01

Background Cooperatives delivering out of hours care in the Netherlands are hesitant about the use of expert systems during triage. Apart from the extra costs, cooperatives are not sure that quality of triage is sufficiently enhanced by these systems and believe that call duration will be prolonged drastically. No figures about the influence of the use of an expert system during triage on call duration and triage decisions in out of hours care in the Netherlands are available. Methods Electronically registered data concerning call duration and triage decisions were collected in two cooperatives. One in Tilburg, a cooperative in a Southern city of the Netherlands using an expert system, and one in Groningen, a cooperative in a Northern city not using an expert system. Some other relevant information about the care process was collected additionally. Data about call duration was compared using an independent sample t-test. Data about call decisions was compared using Chi Square. Results The mean call time in the cooperative using the TAS expert system is 4.6 minutes, in the cooperative not using the expert system 3.9 minutes. A significant difference of 0.7 minutes (0.4 – 1.0, 95% CI) minutes. In the cooperative with an expert system a larger percentage of patients is handled by the assistant, patients are less often referred to a telephone consultation with the GP and are less likely to be offered a visit by the GP. A quick interpretation of the impact of the difference in triage decisions, show that these may be large enough to support the hypothesis that longer call duration is compensated for by less contacts with the GP (by telephone or face-to-face). There is no proof, however, that these differences are caused by the use of the triage system. The larger amount of calls handled by the assistant may be partly caused by the fact that the assistants in the cooperative with an expert system more often consult the GP during triage. And it is not likely that the larger amount of home visits in Groningen can be attributed to the absence of an expert system. The expert system only offers advice whether a GP should be seen, not in which way (by consultation in the office or by home visit). Conclusion The differences in call times between a cooperative using an expert system and a cooperative not using an expert system are small; 0.4 – 1.0 min. Differences in triage decisions were found, but it is not proven that these can be contributed to the use of an expert system. PMID:18271970

The Potential of Computer-Based Expert Systems for Special Educators in Rural Settings.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Parry, James D.; Ferrara, Joseph M.

Knowledge-based expert computer systems are addressing issues relevant to all special educators, but are particularly relevant in rural settings where human experts are less available because of distance and cost. An expert system is an application of artificial intelligence (AI) that typically engages the user in a dialogue resembling the…

Fire Effects, Education, and Expert Systems

Treesearch

Robert E. Martin

1987-01-01

Predicting the effects of fires in the year 2000 and beyond will be enhanced by the use of expert systems. Although our predictions may have broad confidence limits, expert systems should help us to improve the predictions and to focus on the areas where improved knowledge is most needed. The knowledge of experts can be incorporated into previously existing knowledge...

Expert system development methodology and the transition from prototyping to operations: FIESTA, a case study

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Happell, Nadine; Miksell, Steve; Carlisle, Candace

1989-01-01

A major barrier in taking expert systems from prototype to operational status involves instilling end user confidence in the operational system. The software of different life cycle models is examined and the advantages and disadvantages of each when applied to expert system development are explored. The Fault Isolation Expert System for Tracking and data relay satellite system Applications (FIESTA) is presented as a case study of development of an expert system. The end user confidence necessary for operational use of this system is accentuated by the fact that it will handle real-time data in a secure environment, allowing little tolerance for errors. How FIESTA is dealing with transition problems as it moves from an off-line standalone prototype to an on-line real-time system is discussed.

Expert system development methodology and the transition from prototyping to operations - Fiesta, a case study

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Happell, Nadine; Miksell, Steve; Carlisle, Candace

1989-01-01

A major barrier in taking expert systems from prototype to operational status involves instilling end user confidence in the operational system. The software of different life cycle models is examined and the advantages and disadvantages of each when applied to expert system development are explored. The Fault Isolation Expert System for Tracking and data relay satellite system Applications (FIESTA) is presented as a case study of development of an expert system. The end user confidence necessary for operational use of this system is accentuated by the fact that it will handle real-time data in a secure environment, allowing little tolerance for errors. How FIESTA is dealing with transition problems as it moves from an off-line standalone prototype to an on-line real-time system is discussed.

An Embedded Rule-Based Diagnostic Expert System in Ada

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Jones, Robert E.; Liberman, Eugene M.

1992-01-01

Ada is becoming an increasingly popular programming language for large Government-funded software projects. Ada with it portability, transportability, and maintainability lends itself well to today's complex programming environment. In addition, expert systems have also assumed a growing role in providing human-like reasoning capability expertise for computer systems. The integration is discussed of expert system technology with Ada programming language, especially a rule-based expert system using an ART-Ada (Automated Reasoning Tool for Ada) system shell. NASA Lewis was chosen as a beta test site for ART-Ada. The test was conducted by implementing the existing Autonomous Power EXpert System (APEX), a Lisp-based power expert system, in ART-Ada. Three components, the rule-based expert systems, a graphics user interface, and communications software make up SMART-Ada (Systems fault Management with ART-Ada). The rules were written in the ART-Ada development environment and converted to Ada source code. The graphics interface was developed with the Transportable Application Environment (TAE) Plus, which generates Ada source code to control graphics images. SMART-Ada communicates with a remote host to obtain either simulated or real data. The Ada source code generated with ART-Ada, TAE Plus, and communications code was incorporated into an Ada expert system that reads the data from a power distribution test bed, applies the rule to determine a fault, if one exists, and graphically displays it on the screen. The main objective, to conduct a beta test on the ART-Ada rule-based expert system shell, was achieved. The system is operational. New Ada tools will assist in future successful projects. ART-Ada is one such tool and is a viable alternative to the straight Ada code when an application requires a rule-based or knowledge-based approach.

Directory of aerospace safety specialized information sources, volume 2

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Rubinstein, R. I.; Pinto, J. J.; Meschkow, S. Z.

1976-01-01

A handbook of organizations and experts in specific and well-defined areas of safety technology is presented. It is designed for the safety specialist as an aid for locating both information sources and individual points of contact (experts) in engineering related fields. The file covers sources of data in aerospace design, tests, and operations, as well as information on hazard and failure cause identification, accident analysis, and materials characteristics. Other related areas include the handling and transportation of hazardous chemicals, radioactive isotopes, and liquified natural gases.

Knowledge Elicitation: Phase 1 Final Report. Volume 1

DTIC Science & Technology

1989-06-01

34 i.e., superficial features such as type of apparatus, while experts rely on basic principles of physics (e.g., conservation of energy ) and generic...process. This last part of the model would typically consist of descriptions of the impact of the process on one or more of the objects. Figure 3-4...goals. The elicitor is probing for an underlying mental model. 9. Expert: To kill him before he can take any action that would impact on our forces. 10

A Generic Expert Scheduling System Architecture and Toolkit: GUESS (Generically Used Expert Scheduling System)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Liebowitz, Jay; Krishnamurthy, Vijaya; Rodens, Ira; Houston, Chapman; Liebowitz, Alisa; Baek, Seung; Radko, Joe; Zeide, Janet

1996-01-01

Scheduling has become an increasingly important element in today's society and workplace. Within the NASA environment, scheduling is one of the most frequently performed and challenging functions. Towards meeting NASA's scheduling needs, a research version of a generic expert scheduling system architecture and toolkit has been developed. This final report describes the development and testing of GUESS (Generically Used Expert Scheduling System).

ATS displays: A reasoning visualization tool for expert systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Selig, William John; Johannes, James D.

1990-01-01

Reasoning visualization is a useful tool that can help users better understand the inherently non-sequential logic of an expert system. While this is desirable in most all expert system applications, it is especially so for such critical systems as those destined for space-based operations. A hierarchical view of the expert system reasoning process and some characteristics of these various levels is presented. Also presented are Abstract Time Slice (ATS) displays, a tool to visualize the plethora of interrelated information available at the host inferencing language level of reasoning. The usefulness of this tool is illustrated with some examples from a prototype potable water expert system for possible use aboard Space Station Freedom.

COMPUTERIZED RISK AND BIOACCUMULATION SYSTEM (VERSION 1.0)

EPA Science Inventory

CRABS is a combination of a rule-based expert system and more traditional procedural programming techniques. ule-based expert systems attempt to emulate the decision making process of human experts within a clearly defined subject area. xpert systems consist of an "inference engi...

An Expert System for Environmental Data Management.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Berka, Petr; Jirku, Petr

1995-01-01

Examines the possibility of using expert system tools for environmental data management. Describes the domain-independent expert system shell SAK and Knowledge EXplorer, a system that learns rules from data. Demonstrates the functionality of Knowledge EXplorer on an example of water quality evaluation. (LZ)

Data reduction expert assistant

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Miller, Glenn E.; Johnston, Mark D.; Hanisch, Robert J.

1991-01-01

Viewgraphs on data reduction expert assistant are presented. Topics covered include: data analysis systems; philosophy of these systems; disadvantages; expert assistant; useful goals; and implementation considerations.

CLIPS: The C language integrated production system

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Riley, Gary

1994-01-01

Expert systems are computer programs which emulate human expertise in well defined problem domains. The potential payoff from expert systems is high: valuable expertise can be captured and preserved, repetitive and/or mundane tasks requiring human expertise can be automated, and uniformity can be applied in decision making processes. The C Language Integrated Production System (CLIPS) is an expert system building tool, developed at the Johnson Space Center, which provides a complete environment for the development and delivery of rule and/or object based expert systems. CLIPS was specifically designed to provide a low cost option for developing and deploying expert system applications across a wide range of hardware platforms. The commercial potential of CLIPS is vast. Currently, CLIPS is being used by over 5,000 individuals throughout the public and private sector. Because the CLIPS source code is readily available, numerous groups have used CLIPS as the basis for their own expert system tools. To date, three commercially available tools have been derived from CLIPS. In general, the development of CLIPS has helped to improve the ability to deliver expert system technology throughout the public and private sectors for a wide range of applications and diverse computing environments.

Tick control: trapping, biocontrol, host management and other alternative strategies

USGS Publications Warehouse

Ginsberg, Howard S.; Edited by Sonenshine, Daniel E.; Roe, R. Michael

2014-01-01

Biology of Ticks is the most comprehensive work on tick biology and tick-borne diseases. This second edition is a multi-authored work, featuring the research and analyses of renowned experts across the globe. Spanning two volumes, the book examines the systematics, biology, structure, ecological adaptations, evolution, genomics and the molecular processes that underpin the growth, development and survival of these important disease-transmitting parasites. Also discussed is the remarkable array of diseases transmitted (or caused) by ticks, as well as modern methods for their control. This book should serve as a modern reference for students, scientists, physicians, veterinarians and other specialists. Volume I covers the biology of the tick and features chapters on tick systematics, tick life cycles, external and internal anatomy, and others dedicated to specific organ systems, specifically, the tick integument, mouthparts and digestive system, salivary glands, waste removal, salivary glands, respiratory system, circulatory system and hemolymph, fat body, the nervous and sensory systems and reproductive systems. Volume II includes chapters on the ecology of non-nidicolous and nidicolous ticks, genetics and genomics (including the genome of the Lyme disease vector Ixodes scapularis) and immunity, including host immune responses to tick feeding and tick-host interactions, as well as the tick's innate immune system that prevents and/or controls microbial infections. Six chapters cover in depth the many diseases caused by the major tick-borne pathogens, including tick-borne protozoa, viruses, rickettsiae of all types, other types of bacteria (e.g., the Lyme disease agent) and diseases related to tick paralytic agents and toxins. The remaining chapters are devoted to tick control using vaccines, acaricides, repellents, biocontrol, and, finally, techniques for breeding ticks in order to develop tick colonies for scientific study.

The Paradox of Expertise.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hankins, George.

1987-01-01

Describes the novice-to-expert model of human learning and compares it to the recent advances in the areas of artificial intelligence and expert systems. Discusses some of the characteristics of experts, proposing connections between them with expert systems and theories of left-right brain functions. (TW)

Expert systems in clinical microbiology.

PubMed

Winstanley, Trevor; Courvalin, Patrice

2011-07-01

This review aims to discuss expert systems in general and how they may be used in medicine as a whole and clinical microbiology in particular (with the aid of interpretive reading). It considers rule-based systems, pattern-based systems, and data mining and introduces neural nets. A variety of noncommercial systems is described, and the central role played by the EUCAST is stressed. The need for expert rules in the environment of reset EUCAST breakpoints is also questioned. Commercial automated systems with on-board expert systems are considered, with emphasis being placed on the "big three": Vitek 2, BD Phoenix, and MicroScan. By necessity and in places, the review becomes a general review of automated system performances for the detection of specific resistance mechanisms rather than focusing solely on expert systems. Published performance evaluations of each system are drawn together and commented on critically.

Developing and using expert systems and neural networks in medicine: a review on benefits and challenges.

PubMed

Sheikhtaheri, Abbas; Sadoughi, Farahnaz; Hashemi Dehaghi, Zahra

2014-09-01

Complicacy of clinical decisions justifies utilization of information systems such as artificial intelligence (e.g. expert systems and neural networks) to achieve better decisions, however, application of these systems in the medical domain faces some challenges. We aimed at to review the applications of these systems in the medical domain and discuss about such challenges. Following a brief introduction of expert systems and neural networks by representing few examples, the challenges of these systems in the medical domain are discussed. We found that the applications of expert systems and artificial neural networks have been increased in the medical domain. These systems have shown many advantages such as utilization of experts' knowledge, gaining rare knowledge, more time for assessment of the decision, more consistent decisions, and shorter decision-making process. In spite of all these advantages, there are challenges ahead of developing and using such systems including maintenance, required experts, inputting patients' data into the system, problems for knowledge acquisition, problems in modeling medical knowledge, evaluation and validation of system performance, wrong recommendations and responsibility, limited domains of such systems and necessity of integrating such systems into the routine work flows. We concluded that expert systems and neural networks can be successfully used in medicine; however, there are many concerns and questions to be answered through future studies and discussions.

a Study on Satellite Diagnostic Expert Systems Using Case-Based Approach

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Park, Young-Tack; Kim, Jae-Hoon; Park, Hyun-Soo

1997-06-01

Many research works are on going to monitor and diagnose diverse malfunctions of satellite systems as the complexity and number of satellites increase. Currently, many works on monitoring and diagnosis are carried out by human experts but there are needs to automate much of the routine works of them. Hence, it is necessary to study on using expert systems which can assist human experts routine work by doing automatically, thereby allow human experts devote their expertise more critical and important areas of monitoring and diagnosis. In this paper, we are employing artificial intelligence techniques to model human experts' knowledge and inference the constructed knowledge. Especially, case-based approaches are used to construct a knowledge base to model human expert capabilities which use previous typical exemplars. We have designed and implemented a prototype case-based system for diagnosing satellite malfunctions using cases. Our system remembers typical failure cases and diagnoses a current malfunction by indexing the case base. Diverse methods are used to build a more user friendly interface which allows human experts can build a knowledge base in as easy way.

The First Expert CAI System

PubMed Central

Feurzeig, Wallace

1984-01-01

The first expert instructional system, the Socratic System, was developed in 1964. One of the earliest applications of this system was in the area of differential diagnosis in clinical medicine. The power of the underlying instructional paradigm was demonstrated and the potential of the approach for valuably supplementing medical instruction was recognized. Twenty years later, despite further educationally significant advances in expert systems technology and enormous reductions in the cost of computers, expert instructional methods have found very little application in medical schools.

Projects in an expert system class

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Whitson, George M.

1991-01-01

Many universities now teach courses in expert systems. In these courses students study the architecture of an expert system, knowledge acquisition techniques, methods of implementing systems and verification and validation techniques. A major component of any such course is a class project consisting of the design and implementation of an expert system. Discussed here are a number of techniques that we have used at the University of Texas at Tyler to develop meaningful projects that could be completed in a semester course.

Program maintenance manual for nickel cadmium battery expert system, version 1

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1986-01-01

The Nickel-Cadmium Battery Expert System (NICBES) is an expert system for fault diagnosis and advice of the nickel-cadmium batteries found in the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). The system application and security, equipment environment, and the program maintenance procedures are examined.

A Logic Basis for Information Retrieval.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Watters, C. R.; Shepherd, M. A.

1987-01-01

Discusses the potential of recent work in artificial intelligence, especially expert systems, for the development of more effective information retrieval systems. Highlights include the role of an expert bibliographic retrieval system and a prototype expert retrieval system, PROBIB-2, that uses MicroProlog to provide deductive reasoning…

An expert system for the quantification of fault rates in construction fall accidents.

PubMed

Talat Birgonul, M; Dikmen, Irem; Budayan, Cenk; Demirel, Tuncay

2016-01-01

Expert witness reports, prepared with the aim of quantifying fault rates among parties, play an important role in a court's final decision. However, conflicting fault rates assigned by different expert witness boards lead to iterative objections raised by the related parties. This unfavorable situation mainly originates due to the subjectivity of expert judgments and unavailability of objective information about the causes of accidents. As a solution to this shortcoming, an expert system based on a rule-based system was developed for the quantification of fault rates in construction fall accidents. The aim of developing DsSafe is decreasing the subjectivity inherent in expert witness reports. Eighty-four inspection reports prepared by the official and authorized inspectors were examined and root causes of construction fall accidents in Turkey were identified. Using this information, an evaluation form was designed and submitted to the experts. Experts were asked to evaluate the importance level of the factors that govern fall accidents and determine the fault rates under different scenarios. Based on expert judgments, a rule-based expert system was developed. The accuracy and reliability of DsSafe were tested with real data as obtained from finalized court cases. DsSafe gives satisfactory results.

Ground terminal expert (GTEX). Part 2: Expert system diagnostics for a 30/20 Gigahertz satellite transponder

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Durkin, John; Schlegelmilch, Richard; Tallo, Donald

1992-01-01

A research effort was undertaken to investigate how expert system technology could be applied to a satellite communications system. The focus of the expert system is the satellite earth station. A proof of concept expert system called the Ground Terminal Expert (GTEX) was developed at the University of Akron in collaboration with the NASA Lewis Research Center. With the increasing demand for satellite earth stations, maintenance is becoming a vital issue. Vendors of such systems will be looking for cost effective means of maintaining such systems. The objective of GTEX is to aid in diagnosis of faults occurring with the digital earth station. GTEX was developed on a personal computer using the Automated Reasoning Tool for Information Management (ART-IM) developed by the Inference Corporation. Developed for the Phase 2 digital earth station, GTEX is a part of the Systems Integration Test and Evaluation (SITE) facility located at the NASA Lewis Research Center.

System and method for creating expert systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hughes, Peter M. (Inventor); Luczak, Edward C. (Inventor)

1998-01-01

A system and method provides for the creation of a highly graphical expert system without the need for programming in code. An expert system is created by initially building a data interface, defining appropriate Mission, User-Defined, Inferred, and externally-generated GenSAA (EGG) data variables whose data values will be updated and input into the expert system. Next, rules of the expert system are created by building appropriate conditions of the rules which must be satisfied and then by building appropriate actions of rules which are to be executed upon corresponding conditions being satisfied. Finally, an appropriate user interface is built which can be highly graphical in nature and which can include appropriate message display and/or modification of display characteristics of a graphical display object, to visually alert a user of the expert system of varying data values, upon conditions of a created rule being satisfied. The data interface building, rule building, and user interface building are done in an efficient manner and can be created without the need for programming in code.

Threat expert system technology advisor

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kurrasch, E. R.; Tripp, L. R.

1987-01-01

A prototype expert system was developed to determine the feasibility of using expert system technology to enhance the performance and survivability of helicopter pilots in a combat threat environment while flying NOE (Nap of the Earth) missions. The basis for the concept is the potential of using an Expert System Advisor to reduce the extreme overloading of the pilot who flies NOE mission below treetop level at approximately 40 knots while performing several other functions. The ultimate goal is to develop a Threat Expert System Advisor which provides threat information and advice that are better than even a highly experienced copilot. The results clearly show that the NOE pilot needs all the help in decision aiding and threat situation awareness that he can get. It clearly shows that heuristics are important and that an expert system for combat NOE helicopter missions can be of great help to the pilot in complex threat situations and in making decisions.

Engaging expert communities in development of content of Russia’s regional geoportals (case study: “River basins in European Russia” geoportal)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ermolaeva, P.

2018-01-01

The purpose of this study is to attract expert communities’ intellectual resources to the process of developing a geoportal entitled "River Basins in European Russia". The results of a survey of experts (n=100) have shown that more than half of respondents had used a variety of geoportals’ data in their professional life. Data on digital relief models, streamflows and landscape maps are of greatest interest. In order to obtain a comprehensive social and ecological analysis of the territory, experts have expressed interest in placing data on population in the basins and its density, the volume of used natural resources, and recreational zones on the designed geoportal. In practical sense, our study can be viewed as a fruitful ground for the development of upward vertical communication (from citizens to the government) and partially horizontal communication among citizens via their engagement in the environmental decision-making process.

[The application and development of artificial intelligence in medical diagnosis systems].

PubMed

Chen, Zhencheng; Jiang, Yong; Xu, Mingyu; Wang, Hongyan; Jiang, Dazong

2002-09-01

This paper has reviewed the development of artificial intelligence in medical practice and medical diagnostic expert systems, and has summarized the application of artificial neural network. It explains that a source of difficulty in medical diagnostic system is the co-existence of multiple diseases--the potentially inter-related diseases. However, the difficulty of image expert systems is inherent in high-level vision. And it increases the complexity of expert system in medical image. At last, the prospect for the development of artificial intelligence in medical image expert systems is made.

Reference standard space hippocampus labels according to the European Alzheimer's Disease Consortium-Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative harmonized protocol: Utility in automated volumetry.

PubMed

Wolf, Dominik; Bocchetta, Martina; Preboske, Gregory M; Boccardi, Marina; Grothe, Michel J

2017-08-01

A harmonized protocol (HarP) for manual hippocampal segmentation on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has recently been developed by an international European Alzheimer's Disease Consortium-Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative project. We aimed at providing consensual certified HarP hippocampal labels in Montreal Neurological Institute (MNI) standard space to serve as reference in automated image analyses. Manual HarP tracings on the high-resolution MNI152 standard space template of four expert certified HarP tracers were combined to obtain consensual bilateral hippocampus labels. Utility and validity of these reference labels is demonstrated in a simple atlas-based morphometry approach for automated calculation of HarP-compliant hippocampal volumes within SPM software. Individual tracings showed very high agreement among the four expert tracers (pairwise Jaccard indices 0.82-0.87). Automatically calculated hippocampal volumes were highly correlated (r L/R  = 0.89/0.91) with gold standard volumes in the HarP benchmark data set (N = 135 MRIs), with a mean volume difference of 9% (standard deviation 7%). The consensual HarP hippocampus labels in the MNI152 template can serve as a reference standard for automated image analyses involving MNI standard space normalization. Copyright © 2017 the Alzheimer's Association. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Learning to Rank Figures within a Biomedical Article

PubMed Central

Liu, Feifan; Yu, Hong

2014-01-01

Hundreds of millions of figures are available in biomedical literature, representing important biomedical experimental evidence. This ever-increasing sheer volume has made it difficult for scientists to effectively and accurately access figures of their interest, the process of which is crucial for validating research facts and for formulating or testing novel research hypotheses. Current figure search applications can't fully meet this challenge as the “bag of figures” assumption doesn't take into account the relationship among figures. In our previous study, hundreds of biomedical researchers have annotated articles in which they serve as corresponding authors. They ranked each figure in their paper based on a figure's importance at their discretion, referred to as “figure ranking”. Using this collection of annotated data, we investigated computational approaches to automatically rank figures. We exploited and extended the state-of-the-art listwise learning-to-rank algorithms and developed a new supervised-learning model BioFigRank. The cross-validation results show that BioFigRank yielded the best performance compared with other state-of-the-art computational models, and the greedy feature selection can further boost the ranking performance significantly. Furthermore, we carry out the evaluation by comparing BioFigRank with three-level competitive domain-specific human experts: (1) First Author, (2) Non-Author-In-Domain-Expert who is not the author nor co-author of an article but who works in the same field of the corresponding author of the article, and (3) Non-Author-Out-Domain-Expert who is not the author nor co-author of an article and who may or may not work in the same field of the corresponding author of an article. Our results show that BioFigRank outperforms Non-Author-Out-Domain-Expert and performs as well as Non-Author-In-Domain-Expert. Although BioFigRank underperforms First Author, since most biomedical researchers are either in- or out-domain-experts for an article, we conclude that BioFigRank represents an artificial intelligence system that offers expert-level intelligence to help biomedical researchers to navigate increasingly proliferated big data efficiently. PMID:24625719

Learning to rank figures within a biomedical article.

PubMed

Liu, Feifan; Yu, Hong

2014-01-01

Hundreds of millions of figures are available in biomedical literature, representing important biomedical experimental evidence. This ever-increasing sheer volume has made it difficult for scientists to effectively and accurately access figures of their interest, the process of which is crucial for validating research facts and for formulating or testing novel research hypotheses. Current figure search applications can't fully meet this challenge as the "bag of figures" assumption doesn't take into account the relationship among figures. In our previous study, hundreds of biomedical researchers have annotated articles in which they serve as corresponding authors. They ranked each figure in their paper based on a figure's importance at their discretion, referred to as "figure ranking". Using this collection of annotated data, we investigated computational approaches to automatically rank figures. We exploited and extended the state-of-the-art listwise learning-to-rank algorithms and developed a new supervised-learning model BioFigRank. The cross-validation results show that BioFigRank yielded the best performance compared with other state-of-the-art computational models, and the greedy feature selection can further boost the ranking performance significantly. Furthermore, we carry out the evaluation by comparing BioFigRank with three-level competitive domain-specific human experts: (1) First Author, (2) Non-Author-In-Domain-Expert who is not the author nor co-author of an article but who works in the same field of the corresponding author of the article, and (3) Non-Author-Out-Domain-Expert who is not the author nor co-author of an article and who may or may not work in the same field of the corresponding author of an article. Our results show that BioFigRank outperforms Non-Author-Out-Domain-Expert and performs as well as Non-Author-In-Domain-Expert. Although BioFigRank underperforms First Author, since most biomedical researchers are either in- or out-domain-experts for an article, we conclude that BioFigRank represents an artificial intelligence system that offers expert-level intelligence to help biomedical researchers to navigate increasingly proliferated big data efficiently.

Development of an expert system for assessing trumpeter swan breeding habitat in the Northern Rocky Mountains.

USGS Publications Warehouse

Sojda, Richard S.; Cornely, John E.; Howe, Adele E.

2002-01-01

A decision support system for the management of the Rocky Mountain Population of Trumpeter Swans (Cygnus buccinators) is being developed. As part of this, three expert systems are also in development: one for assessing the quality of Trumpeter Swan breeding habitat; one for making water level recommendations in montane, palustrine wetlands; and one for assessing the contribution a particular site can make towards meeting objectives from as flyway perspective. The focus of this paper is the development of the breeding habitat expert system, which currently consists of 157 rules. Out purpose is to provide decision support for issues that appear to be beyond the capability of a single persons to conceptualize and solve. We propose that by involving multiple experts in the development and use of the systems, management will be significantly improved. The knowledge base for the expert system has been developed using standard knowledge engineering techniques with a small team of ecological experts. Knowledge was then coded using production rules organized in decision trees using a commercial expert system development shell. The final system has been deployed on the world wide web.

Intelligent systems for human resources.

PubMed

Kline, K B

1988-11-01

An intelligent system contains knowledge about some domain; it has sophisticated decision-making processes and the ability to explain its actions. The most important aspect of an intelligent system is its ability to effectively interact with humans to teach or assist complex information processing. Two intelligent systems are Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITs) and Expert Systems. The ITSs provide instruction to a student similar to a human tutor. The ITSs capture individual performance and tutor deficiencies. These systems consist of an expert module, which contains the knowledge or material to be taught; the student module, which contains a representation of the knowledge the student knows and does not know about the domain; and the instructional or teaching module, which selects specific knowledge to teach, the instructional strategy, and provides assistance to the student to tutor deficiencies. Expert systems contain an expert's knowledge about some domain and perform specialized tasks or aid a novice in the performance of certain tasks. The most important part of an expert system is the knowledge base. This knowledge base contains all the specialized and technical knowledge an expert possesses. For an expert system to interact effectively with humans, it must have the ability to explain its actions. Use of intelligent systems can have a profound effect on human resources. The ITSs can provide better training by tutoring on an individual basis, and the expert systems can make better use of human resources through job aiding and performing complex tasks. With increasing training requirements and "doing more with less," intelligent systems can have a positive effect on human resources.

Artificial Intelligence and Expert Systems Research and Their Possible Impact on Information Science.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Borko, Harold

1985-01-01

Defines artificial intelligence (AI) and expert systems; describes library applications utilizing AI to automate creation of document representations, request formulations, and design and modify search strategies for information retrieval systems; discusses expert system development for information services; and reviews impact of these…

Enhanced use of CLIPS at the Los Alamos National Laboratory

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Duerre, K. H.; Parkinson, W. J.; Osowski, J. J.

1991-01-01

Early efforts for producing expert systems for engineering applications used a limited subset of C Language Integrated Production System (CLIPS) features. The implementation details of previous expert systems and of the current expert system, which is used for training operators in the control of the Isotope Separation System, are discussed.

SigmaCLIPSE = presentation management + NASA CLI PS + SQL

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Weiss, Bernard P., Jr.

1990-01-01

SigmaCLIPSE provides an expert systems and 'intelligent' data base development program for diverse systems integration environments that require support for automated reasoning and expert systems technology, presentation management, and access to 'intelligent' SQL data bases. The SigmaCLIPSE technology and and its integrated ability to access 4th generation application development and decision support tools through a portable SQL interface, comprises a sophisticated software development environment for solving knowledge engineering and expert systems development problems in information intensive commercial environments -- financial services, health care, and distributed process control -- where the expert system must be extendable -- a major architectural advantage of NASA CLIPS. SigmaCLIPSE is a research effort intended to test the viability of merging SQL data bases with expert systems technology.

A diagnostic expert system for aircraft generator control unit (GCU)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ho, Ting-Long; Bayles, Robert A.; Havlicsek, Bruce L.

The modular VSCF (variable-speed constant-frequency) generator families are described as using standard modules to reduce the maintenance cost and to improve the product's testability. A general diagnostic expert system shell that guides troubleshooting of modules or line replaceable units (LRUs) is introduced. An application of the diagnostic system to a particular LRU, the generator control unit (GCU) is reported. The approach to building the diagnostic expert system is first to capture general diagnostic strategy in an expert system shell. This shell can be easily applied to different devices or LRUs by writing rules to capture only additional device-specific diagnostic information from expert repair personnel. The diagnostic system has the necessary knowledge embedded in its programs and exhibits expertise to troubleshoot the GCU.

Transatlantic medical consultation and second opinion in pediatric cardiology has benefit past patient care: A case study in videoconferencing.

PubMed

Kovacikova, Lubica; Zahorec, Martin; Skrak, Peter; Hanna, Brian D; Lee Vogel, R

2017-07-01

Telemedicine is a rapidly evolving form of modern information and communication technology used to deliver clinical services and educational activities. The aim of this article is to report and analyze our experience with transatlantic consultation via videoconferencing in pediatric cardiology. In February, 2013, videoconferencing project was launched between a medium-volume pediatric cardiac center in Bratislava, Slovakia and subspecialty experts from a high-volume pediatric cardiac program at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), USA. During 1.5-2 hours videoconferences, 2-3 patients with similar complex clinical scenarios were presented to CHOP experts. The main goal of the project was consultation on individual patients to validate, alter or radically change clinical management plans. From February, 2013 to January, 2017, 25 videoconferences occurred and 73 cases were discussed. The median patient age was 52 months (range; 1 day-30 years). Forty-six discussed cases were outpatients, 21 patients were in the intensive care unit and 6 patients were discussed post mortem. Thirty-one CHOP experts from different subspecialties participated actively in patient consultations. The most frequent recommendations were related to single ventricle, pulmonary hypertension or heart failure patients and intervention in complex and/or rare cardiac diseases. Specialists from CHOP agreed completely with the original care plan in 16% of cases. In 52% cases, adjustments to original plan were suggested. Radical changes were recommended in 30% of cases. Receiving institution adopted recommendations to the patient care fully in 79% and partially in 13% of patients. Based on our 4-year experience we consider videoconferencing between medium-size pediatric cardiac center and subspecialty experts from a high-volume pediatric cardiac program a suitable form of medical consultations. Videoconferencing assists in clinical decision making for complex patient cases and serves as an effective educational tool to gain knowledge and experience "without borders." © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

A rule-based expert system for generating control displays at the Advanced Photon Source

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Coulter, Karen J.

1994-12-01

The integration of a rule-based expert system for generating screen displays for controlling and monitoring instrumentation under the Experimental Physics and Industrial Control System (EPICS) is presented. The expert system is implemented using CLIPS, an expert system shell from the Software Technology Branch at Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center. The user selects the hardware input and output to be displayed and the expert system constructs a graphical control screen appropriate for the data. Such a system provides a method for implementing a common look and feel for displays created by several different users and reduces the amount of time required to create displays for new hardware configurations. Users are able to modify the displays as needed using the EPICS display editor tool.

The potential of expert systems for remote sensing application

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Mooneyhan, D. W.

1983-01-01

An overview of the status and potential of artificial intelligence-driven expert systems in the role of image data analysis is presented. An expert system is defined and its structure is summarized. Three such systems designed for image interpretation are outlined. The use of an expert system to detect changes on the earth's surface is discussed, and the components of a knowledge-based image interpretation system and their make-up are outlined. An example of how such a system should work for an area in the tropics where deforestation has occurred is presented as a sequence of situation/action decisions.

A CLIPS-based expert system for the evaluation and selection of robots

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Nour, Mohamed A.; Offodile, Felix O.; Madey, Gregory R.

1994-01-01

This paper describes the development of a prototype expert system for intelligent selection of robots for manufacturing operations. The paper first develops a comprehensive, three-stage process to model the robot selection problem. The decisions involved in this model easily lend themselves to an expert system application. A rule-based system, based on the selection model, is developed using the CLIPS expert system shell. Data about actual robots is used to test the performance of the prototype system. Further extensions to the rule-based system for data handling and interfacing capabilities are suggested.

Expert Systems in Clinical Microbiology

PubMed Central

Winstanley, Trevor; Courvalin, Patrice

2011-01-01

Summary: This review aims to discuss expert systems in general and how they may be used in medicine as a whole and clinical microbiology in particular (with the aid of interpretive reading). It considers rule-based systems, pattern-based systems, and data mining and introduces neural nets. A variety of noncommercial systems is described, and the central role played by the EUCAST is stressed. The need for expert rules in the environment of reset EUCAST breakpoints is also questioned. Commercial automated systems with on-board expert systems are considered, with emphasis being placed on the “big three”: Vitek 2, BD Phoenix, and MicroScan. By necessity and in places, the review becomes a general review of automated system performances for the detection of specific resistance mechanisms rather than focusing solely on expert systems. Published performance evaluations of each system are drawn together and commented on critically. PMID:21734247

Controlling Real-Time Processes On The Space Station With Expert Systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Leinweber, David; Perry, John

1987-02-01

Many aspects of space station operations involve continuous control of real-time processes. These processes include electrical power system monitoring, propulsion system health and maintenance, environmental and life support systems, space suit checkout, on-board manufacturing, and servicing of attached vehicles such as satellites, shuttles, orbital maneuvering vehicles, orbital transfer vehicles and remote teleoperators. Traditionally, monitoring of these critical real-time processes has been done by trained human experts monitoring telemetry data. However, the long duration of space station missions and the high cost of crew time in space creates a powerful economic incentive for the development of highly autonomous knowledge-based expert control procedures for these space stations. In addition to controlling the normal operations of these processes, the expert systems must also be able to quickly respond to anomalous events, determine their cause and initiate corrective actions in a safe and timely manner. This must be accomplished without excessive diversion of system resources from ongoing control activities and any events beyond the scope of the expert control and diagnosis functions must be recognized and brought to the attention of human operators. Real-time sensor based expert systems (as opposed to off-line, consulting or planning systems receiving data via the keyboard) pose particular problems associated with sensor failures, sensor degradation and data consistency, which must be explicitly handled in an efficient manner. A set of these systems must also be able to work together in a cooperative manner. This paper describes the requirements for real-time expert systems in space station control, and presents prototype implementations of space station expert control procedures in PICON (process intelligent control). PICON is a real-time expert system shell which operates in parallel with distributed data acquisition systems. It incorporates a specialized inference engine with a specialized scheduling portion specifically designed to match the allocation of system resources with the operational requirements of real-time control systems. Innovative knowledge engineering techniques used in PICON to facilitate the development of real-time sensor-based expert systems which use the special features of the inference engine are illustrated in the prototype examples.

Posted wait times an added advantage to multi-facility systems?

PubMed

2011-04-01

Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare in Memphis, TN, is investigating whether posting ED wait times via the internet can positively impact patient flow in the six EDs the health system operates in the Memphis region. The health system began posting wait times in August 2010, resulting in increases in ED volume ranging from 6% to 10%. The health system is monitoring ED arrivals by zip code to assess any impact on load balancing between its busy EDs. One marketing challenge is that a competitor is posting ED wait times as well, but it is posting the time it takes for a patient to be placed in a bed as opposed to the door-to-provider time that Methodist Le Bonheur is posting. The approach has the most impact on lower-acuity patients, but experts worry that in the future, payers may not be reimbursed for ED care for these patients.

Decision support system and medical liability.

PubMed Central

Allaërt, F. A.; Dusserre, L.

1992-01-01

Expert systems, which are going to be an essential tool in Medicine, are evolving in terms of sophistication of both knowledge representation and types of reasoning models used. The more efficient they are, the more often they will be used and professional liability will be involved. So after giving a short survey of configuration and working of expert systems, the authors will study the liabilities of people building and the using expert systems regarding some various dysfunctions. Of course the expert systems have to be considered only for human support and they should not possess any authority themselves, therefore the doctors must keep in mind that it is their own responsibility and as such keep their judgment and criticism. However other professionals could be involved, if they have participated in the building of expert systems. The different liabilities and the burden of proof are discussed according to some possible dysfunctions. In any case the final proof is inside the expert system by itself through re-computation of data. PMID:1482972

PVDaCS - A prototype knowledge-based expert system for certification of spacecraft data

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wharton, Cathleen; Shiroma, Patricia J.; Simmons, Karen E.

1989-01-01

On-line data management techniques to certify spacecraft information are mandated by increasing telemetry rates. Knowledge-based expert systems offer the ability to certify data electronically without the need for time-consuming human interaction. Issues of automatic certification are explored by designing a knowledge-based expert system to certify data from a scientific instrument, the Orbiter Ultraviolet Spectrometer, on an operating NASA planetary spacecraft, Pioneer Venus. The resulting rule-based system, called PVDaCS (Pioneer Venus Data Certification System), is a functional prototype demonstrating the concepts of a larger system design. A key element of the system design is the representation of an expert's knowledge through the usage of well ordered sequences. PVDaCS produces a certification value derived from expert knowledge and an analysis of the instrument's operation. Results of system performance are presented.

Validation and verification of expert systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gilstrap, Lewey

1991-01-01

Validation and verification (V&V) are procedures used to evaluate system structure or behavior with respect to a set of requirements. Although expert systems are often developed as a series of prototypes without requirements, it is not possible to perform V&V on any system for which requirements have not been prepared. In addition, there are special problems associated with the evaluation of expert systems that do not arise in the evaluation of conventional systems, such as verification of the completeness and accuracy of the knowledge base. The criticality of most NASA missions make it important to be able to certify the performance of the expert systems used to support these mission. Recommendations for the most appropriate method for integrating V&V into the Expert System Development Methodology (ESDM) and suggestions for the most suitable approaches for each stage of ESDM development are presented.

Toward the Development of Expert Assessment Systems.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hasselbring, Ted S.

1986-01-01

The potential application of "expert systems" to the diagnosis and assessment of special-needs children is examined and existing prototype systems are reviewed. The future of this artificial intelligence technology is discussed in relation to emerging development tools designed for the creation of expert systems by the lay public. (Author)

A proposed framework for consensus-based lung tumour volume auto-segmentation in 4D computed tomography imaging

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Martin, Spencer; Brophy, Mark; Palma, David; Louie, Alexander V.; Yu, Edward; Yaremko, Brian; Ahmad, Belal; Barron, John L.; Beauchemin, Steven S.; Rodrigues, George; Gaede, Stewart

2015-02-01

This work aims to propose and validate a framework for tumour volume auto-segmentation based on ground-truth estimates derived from multi-physician input contours to expedite 4D-CT based lung tumour volume delineation. 4D-CT datasets of ten non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients were manually segmented by 6 physicians. Multi-expert ground truth (GT) estimates were constructed using the STAPLE algorithm for the gross tumour volume (GTV) on all respiratory phases. Next, using a deformable model-based method, multi-expert GT on each individual phase of the 4D-CT dataset was propagated to all other phases providing auto-segmented GTVs and motion encompassing internal gross target volumes (IGTVs) based on GT estimates (STAPLE) from each respiratory phase of the 4D-CT dataset. Accuracy assessment of auto-segmentation employed graph cuts for 3D-shape reconstruction and point-set registration-based analysis yielding volumetric and distance-based measures. STAPLE-based auto-segmented GTV accuracy ranged from (81.51  ±  1.92) to (97.27  ±  0.28)% volumetric overlap of the estimated ground truth. IGTV auto-segmentation showed significantly improved accuracies with reduced variance for all patients ranging from 90.87 to 98.57% volumetric overlap of the ground truth volume. Additional metrics supported these observations with statistical significance. Accuracy of auto-segmentation was shown to be largely independent of selection of the initial propagation phase. IGTV construction based on auto-segmented GTVs within the 4D-CT dataset provided accurate and reliable target volumes compared to manual segmentation-based GT estimates. While inter-/intra-observer effects were largely mitigated, the proposed segmentation workflow is more complex than that of current clinical practice and requires further development.

A proposed framework for consensus-based lung tumour volume auto-segmentation in 4D computed tomography imaging.

PubMed

Martin, Spencer; Brophy, Mark; Palma, David; Louie, Alexander V; Yu, Edward; Yaremko, Brian; Ahmad, Belal; Barron, John L; Beauchemin, Steven S; Rodrigues, George; Gaede, Stewart

2015-02-21

This work aims to propose and validate a framework for tumour volume auto-segmentation based on ground-truth estimates derived from multi-physician input contours to expedite 4D-CT based lung tumour volume delineation. 4D-CT datasets of ten non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients were manually segmented by 6 physicians. Multi-expert ground truth (GT) estimates were constructed using the STAPLE algorithm for the gross tumour volume (GTV) on all respiratory phases. Next, using a deformable model-based method, multi-expert GT on each individual phase of the 4D-CT dataset was propagated to all other phases providing auto-segmented GTVs and motion encompassing internal gross target volumes (IGTVs) based on GT estimates (STAPLE) from each respiratory phase of the 4D-CT dataset. Accuracy assessment of auto-segmentation employed graph cuts for 3D-shape reconstruction and point-set registration-based analysis yielding volumetric and distance-based measures. STAPLE-based auto-segmented GTV accuracy ranged from (81.51  ±  1.92) to (97.27  ±  0.28)% volumetric overlap of the estimated ground truth. IGTV auto-segmentation showed significantly improved accuracies with reduced variance for all patients ranging from 90.87 to 98.57% volumetric overlap of the ground truth volume. Additional metrics supported these observations with statistical significance. Accuracy of auto-segmentation was shown to be largely independent of selection of the initial propagation phase. IGTV construction based on auto-segmented GTVs within the 4D-CT dataset provided accurate and reliable target volumes compared to manual segmentation-based GT estimates. While inter-/intra-observer effects were largely mitigated, the proposed segmentation workflow is more complex than that of current clinical practice and requires further development.

High-level user interfaces for transfer function design with semantics.

PubMed

Salama, Christof Rezk; Keller, Maik; Kohlmann, Peter

2006-01-01

Many sophisticated techniques for the visualization of volumetric data such as medical data have been published. While existing techniques are mature from a technical point of view, managing the complexity of visual parameters is still difficult for non-expert users. To this end, this paper presents new ideas to facilitate the specification of optical properties for direct volume rendering. We introduce an additional level of abstraction for parametric models of transfer functions. The proposed framework allows visualization experts to design high-level transfer function models which can intuitively be used by non-expert users. The results are user interfaces which provide semantic information for specialized visualization problems. The proposed method is based on principal component analysis as well as on concepts borrowed from computer animation.

Automatic computation of 2D cardiac measurements from B-mode echocardiography

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Park, JinHyeong; Feng, Shaolei; Zhou, S. Kevin

2012-03-01

We propose a robust and fully automatic algorithm which computes the 2D echocardiography measurements recommended by America Society of Echocardiography. The algorithm employs knowledge-based imaging technologies which can learn the expert's knowledge from the training images and expert's annotation. Based on the models constructed from the learning stage, the algorithm searches initial location of the landmark points for the measurements by utilizing heart structure of left ventricle including mitral valve aortic valve. It employs the pseudo anatomic M-mode image generated by accumulating the line images in 2D parasternal long axis view along the time to refine the measurement landmark points. The experiment results with large volume of data show that the algorithm runs fast and is robust comparable to expert.

Parallel processing and expert systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lau, Sonie; Yan, Jerry C.

1991-01-01

Whether it be monitoring the thermal subsystem of Space Station Freedom, or controlling the navigation of the autonomous rover on Mars, NASA missions in the 1990s cannot enjoy an increased level of autonomy without the efficient implementation of expert systems. Merely increasing the computational speed of uniprocessors may not be able to guarantee that real-time demands are met for larger systems. Speedup via parallel processing must be pursued alongside the optimization of sequential implementations. Prototypes of parallel expert systems have been built at universities and industrial laboratories in the U.S. and Japan. The state-of-the-art research in progress related to parallel execution of expert systems is surveyed. The survey discusses multiprocessors for expert systems, parallel languages for symbolic computations, and mapping expert systems to multiprocessors. Results to date indicate that the parallelism achieved for these systems is small. The main reasons are (1) the body of knowledge applicable in any given situation and the amount of computation executed by each rule firing are small, (2) dividing the problem solving process into relatively independent partitions is difficult, and (3) implementation decisions that enable expert systems to be incrementally refined hamper compile-time optimization. In order to obtain greater speedups, data parallelism and application parallelism must be exploited.

Fuzzy logic based expert system for the treatment of mobile tooth.

PubMed

Mago, Vijay Kumar; Mago, Anjali; Sharma, Poonam; Mago, Jagmohan

2011-01-01

The aim of this research work is to design an expert system to assist dentist in treating the mobile tooth. There is lack of consistency among dentists in choosing the treatment plan. Moreover, there is no expert system currently available to verify and support such decision making in dentistry. A Fuzzy Logic based expert system has been designed to accept imprecise and vague values of dental sign-symptoms related to mobile tooth and the system suggests treatment plan(s). The comparison of predictions made by the system with those of the dentist is conducted. Chi-square Test of homogeneity is conducted and it is found that the system is capable of predicting accurate results. With this system, dentist feels more confident while planning the treatment of mobile tooth as he can verify his decision with the expert system. The authors also argue that Fuzzy Logic provides an appropriate mechanism to handle imprecise values of dental domain.

NASA ground terminal communication equipment automated fault isolation expert systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Tang, Y. K.; Wetzel, C. R.

1990-01-01

The prototype expert systems are described that diagnose the Distribution and Switching System I and II (DSS1 and DSS2), Statistical Multiplexers (SM), and Multiplexer and Demultiplexer systems (MDM) at the NASA Ground Terminal (NGT). A system level fault isolation expert system monitors the activities of a selected data stream, verifies that the fault exists in the NGT and identifies the faulty equipment. Equipment level fault isolation expert systems are invoked to isolate the fault to a Line Replaceable Unit (LRU) level. Input and sometimes output data stream activities for the equipment are available. The system level fault isolation expert system compares the equipment input and output status for a data stream and performs loopback tests (if necessary) to isolate the faulty equipment. The equipment level fault isolation system utilizes the process of elimination and/or the maintenance personnel's fault isolation experience stored in its knowledge base. The DSS1, DSS2 and SM fault isolation systems, using the knowledge of the current equipment configuration and the equipment circuitry issues a set of test connections according to the predefined rules. The faulty component or board can be identified by the expert system by analyzing the test results. The MDM fault isolation system correlates the failure symptoms with the faulty component based on maintenance personnel experience. The faulty component can be determined by knowing the failure symptoms. The DSS1, DSS2, SM, and MDM equipment simulators are implemented in PASCAL. The DSS1 fault isolation expert system was converted to C language from VP-Expert and integrated into the NGT automation software for offline switch diagnoses. Potentially, the NGT fault isolation algorithms can be used for the DSS1, SM, amd MDM located at Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC).

Vinken and Bruyn's Handbook of Clinical Neurology. A witness of late-twentieth century neurological progress.

PubMed

Koehler, P J; Jennekens, F G I

2008-01-01

Vinken and Bruyn's Handbook of Clinical Neurology (HCN) is best characterized as an encyclopedia. In this paper we describe the origin, production, and reception of HCN. Data were gathered from a literature search, by screening of HCN-volumes, interviewing key-role persons and a study of an HCN-archive. The initiative for HCN was taken by two Excerpta Medica staff members, the one a strategist with expertise in information systems, the other a gifted neurologist with an expert knowledge of who is who in the world of neurological literature. Within a period of 38 years, 2799 authors, 28 volume editors, the two initiators, and a third chief editor for the American continent described the whole of neurology in 1909 chapters on all together 46,025 pages (excluding index volumes). HCN was sold mainly to medical institutes in affluent countries. A digital version of the revised edition was proposed by the editors but refused by the publisher for commercial reasons. HCN was in general well received by book reviewers. The main criticisms concerned the price of the volumes, lack of editorial control, inadequacy of indexes, and lack of cross references. HCN offers unrivalled information on the state of the art of the clinical neurosciences in the second half of the twentieth century. In addition, it contains extensive reviews of the history of neurological diseases in the volumes of the original edition.

Expert Systems for Libraries at SCIL [Small Computers in Libraries]'88.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kochtanek, Thomas R.; And Others

1988-01-01

Six brief papers on expert systems for libraries cover (1) a knowledge-based approach to database design; (2) getting started in expert systems; (3) using public domain software to develop a business reference system; (4) a music cataloging inquiry system; (5) linguistic analysis of reference transactions; and (6) a model of a reference librarian.…

Sixth Annual Workshop on Space Operations Applications and Research (SOAR 1992), volume 2

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Krishen, Kumar (Editor)

1993-01-01

This document contains papers presented at the Space Operations, Applications, and Research Symposium (SOAR) hosted by the U.S. Air Force (USAF) on 4-6 Aug. 1992. The symposium was cosponsored by the Air Force Material Command and by NASA/JSC. Key technical areas covered during the symposium were robotics and telepresence, automation and intelligent systems, human factors, life sciences, and space maintenance and servicing. The SOAR differed from most other conferences in that it was concerned with Government-sponsored research and development relevant to aerospace operations. Symposium proceedings include papers covering various disciplines presented by experts from NASA, the USAF, universities, and industry.

Automatic identification of bacterial types using statistical imaging methods

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Trattner, Sigal; Greenspan, Hayit; Tepper, Gapi; Abboud, Shimon

2003-05-01

The objective of the current study is to develop an automatic tool to identify bacterial types using computer-vision and statistical modeling techniques. Bacteriophage (phage)-typing methods are used to identify and extract representative profiles of bacterial types, such as the Staphylococcus Aureus. Current systems rely on the subjective reading of plaque profiles by human expert. This process is time-consuming and prone to errors, especially as technology is enabling the increase in the number of phages used for typing. The statistical methodology presented in this work, provides for an automated, objective and robust analysis of visual data, along with the ability to cope with increasing data volumes.

Reference Standards, Judges, and Comparison Subjects

PubMed Central

Hripcsak, George; Wilcox, Adam

2002-01-01

Medical informatics systems are often designed to perform at the level of human experts. Evaluation of the performance of these systems is often constrained by lack of reference standards, either because the appropriate response is not known or because no simple appropriate response exists. Even when performance can be assessed, it is not always clear whether the performance is sufficient or reasonable. These challenges can be addressed if an evaluator enlists the help of clinical domain experts. 1) The experts can carry out the same tasks as the system, and then their responses can be combined to generate a reference standard. 2)The experts can judge the appropriateness of system output directly. 3) The experts can serve as comparison subjects with which the system can be compared. These are separate roles that have different implications for study design, metrics, and issues of reliability and validity. Diagrams help delineate the roles of experts in complex study designs. PMID:11751799

Counseling, Artificial Intelligence, and Expert Systems.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Illovsky, Michael E.

1994-01-01

Considers the use of artificial intelligence and expert systems in counseling. Limitations are explored; candidates for counseling versus those for expert systems are discussed; programming considerations are reviewed; and techniques for dealing with rational, nonrational, and irrational thoughts and feelings are described. (Contains 46…

Computer-Aided Structural Engineering (CASE) Project: State of the Art on Expert Systems Applications in Design, Construction and Maintenance of Structures

DTIC Science & Technology

1989-09-01

OGT, F1EPQRTJTL4, W" - 3^ n"r-- n *ON EXPERT SYSTEMS IN DESIGN, CONSTRUCTION AND’, IWAJNTENANCE-OF STRUCTURES Arockiasamy, Sunghoon Lee Clepartrhent...based expert system applications in the areas of structural design, design standards, and construction planning. This study will aid in the development...of a comprehensive expert system for tvical hydraulic structures. Funding for this report was provided by the US Army Engineer Waterways Experiment

A LISP-Ada connection

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Jaworski, Allan; Lavallee, David; Zoch, David

1987-01-01

The prototype demonstrates the feasibility of using Ada for expert systems and the implementation of an expert-friendly interface which supports knowledge entry. In the Ford LISP-Ada Connection (FLAC) system LISP and Ada are used in ways which complement their respective capabilities. Future investigation will concentrate on the enhancement of the expert knowledge entry/debugging interface and on the issues associated with multitasking and real-time expert systems implementation in Ada.

Benchmarking expert system tools

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Riley, Gary

1988-01-01

As part of its evaluation of new technologies, the Artificial Intelligence Section of the Mission Planning and Analysis Div. at NASA-Johnson has made timing tests of several expert system building tools. Among the production systems tested were Automated Reasoning Tool, several versions of OPS5, and CLIPS (C Language Integrated Production System), an expert system builder developed by the AI section. Also included in the test were a Zetalisp version of the benchmark along with four versions of the benchmark written in Knowledge Engineering Environment, an object oriented, frame based expert system tool. The benchmarks used for testing are studied.

Endobronchial Valves for Endoscopic Lung Volume Reduction: Best Practice Recommendations from Expert Panel on Endoscopic Lung Volume Reduction.

PubMed

Slebos, Dirk-Jan; Shah, Pallav L; Herth, Felix J F; Valipour, Arschang

2017-01-01

Endoscopic lung volume reduction (ELVR) is being adopted as a treatment option for carefully selected patients suffering from severe emphysema. ELVR with the one-way endobronchial Zephyr valves (EBV) has been demonstrated to improve pulmonary function, exercise capacity, and quality of life in patients with both heterogeneous and homogenous emphysema without collateral ventilation. In this "expert best practices" review, we will highlight the practical aspects of this therapy. Key selection criteria for ELVR are hyperinflation with a residual volume >175% of predicted, forced expiratory volume <50% of predicted, and a 6-min walking distance >100 m. Patients with repeated infectious complications, severe bronchiectasis, and those with unstable cardiovascular comorbidities should be excluded from EBV treatment. The procedure may be performed with either conscious sedation or general anesthesia and positive pressure mechanical ventilation using a flexible endotracheal tube or a rigid bronchoscope. Chartis and EBV placement should be performed in 1 procedure when possible. The sequence of valve placement should be orchestrated to avoid obstruction and delivery of subsequent valves. If atelectasis has not occurred by 1 month after procedure, evaluate valve position on CT and consider replacing the valves that are not optimally positioned. Pneumothorax is a common complication and typically occurs in the first 2 days following treatment. A management algorithm for pneumothorax has been previously published. Long-term sequelae from EBV therapy do occur but are easily manageable. © 2016 The Author(s) Published by S. Karger AG, Basel.

An expert system to manage the operation of the Space Shuttle's fuel cell cryogenic reactant tanks

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Murphey, Amy Y.

1990-01-01

This paper describes a rule-based expert system to manage the operation of the Space Shuttle's cryogenic fuel system. Rules are based on standard fuel tank operating procedures described in the EECOM Console Handbook. The problem of configuring the operation of the Space Shuttle's fuel tanks is well-bounded and well defined. Moreover, the solution of this problem can be encoded in a knowledge-based system. Therefore, a rule-based expert system is the appropriate paradigm. Furthermore, the expert system could be used in coordination with power system simulation software to design operating procedures for specific missions.

Expert systems as applied to bridges and pavements : an overview.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

1986-01-01

Expert systems is a rapidly emerging new application of computers to aid decision makers in solving problems. This report gives an overview of what expert systems are and of what use they may be to a transportation department. The focus of the applic...

GenSAA: A tool for advancing satellite monitoring with graphical expert systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hughes, Peter M.; Luczak, Edward C.

1993-01-01

During numerous contacts with a satellite each day, spacecraft analysts must closely monitor real time data for combinations of telemetry parameter values, trends, and other indications that may signify a problem or failure. As satellites become more complex and the number of data items increases, this task is becoming increasingly difficult for humans to perform at acceptable performance levels. At the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, fault-isolation expert systems have been developed to support data monitoring and fault detection tasks in satellite control centers. Based on the lessons learned during these initial efforts in expert system automation, a new domain-specific expert system development tool named the Generic Spacecraft Analyst Assistant (GenSAA) is being developed to facilitate the rapid development and reuse of real-time expert systems to serve as fault-isolation assistants for spacecraft analysts. Although initially domain-specific in nature, this powerful tool will support the development of highly graphical expert systems for data monitoring purposes throughout the space and commercial industry.

The Generic Spacecraft Analyst Assistant (gensaa): a Tool for Developing Graphical Expert Systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hughes, Peter M.

1993-01-01

During numerous contacts with a satellite each day, spacecraft analysts must closely monitor real-time data. The analysts must watch for combinations of telemetry parameter values, trends, and other indications that may signify a problem or failure. As the satellites become more complex and the number of data items increases, this task is becoming increasingly difficult for humans to perform at acceptable performance levels. At NASA GSFC, fault-isolation expert systems are in operation supporting this data monitoring task. Based on the lessons learned during these initial efforts in expert system automation, a new domain-specific expert system development tool named the Generic Spacecraft Analyst Assistant (GenSAA) is being developed to facilitate the rapid development and reuse of real-time expert systems to serve as fault-isolation assistants for spacecraft analysts. Although initially domain-specific in nature, this powerful tool will readily support the development of highly graphical expert systems for data monitoring purposes throughout the space and commercial industry.

Research and development for Onboard Navigation (ONAV) ground based expert/trainer system: ONAV entry expert system code

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bochsler, Daniel C.

1988-01-01

A complete listing is given of the expert system rules for the Entry phase of the Onboard Navigation (ONAV) Ground Based Expert Trainer System for aircraft/space shuttle navigation. These source listings appear in the same format as utilized and required by the C Language Integrated Production System (CLIPS) expert system shell which is the basis for the ONAV entry system. A schematic overview is given of how the rules are organized. These groups result from a partitioning of the rules according to the overall function which a given set of rules performs. This partitioning was established and maintained according to that established in the knowledge specification document. In addition, four other groups of rules are specified. The four groups (control flow, operator inputs, output management, and data tables) perform functions that affect all the other functional rule groups. As the name implies, control flow ensures that the rule groups are executed in the order required for proper operation; operator input rules control the introduction into the CLIPS fact base of various kinds of data required by the expert system; output management rules control the updating of the ONAV expert system user display screen during execution of the system; and data tables are static information utilized by many different rule sets gathered in one convenient place.

An expert system prototype for aiding in the development of software functional requirements for NASA Goddard's command management system: A case study and lessons learned

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Liebowitz, Jay

1986-01-01

At NASA Goddard, the role of the command management system (CMS) is to transform general requests for spacecraft opeerations into detailed operational plans to be uplinked to the spacecraft. The CMS is part of the NASA Data System which entails the downlink of science and engineering data from NASA near-earth satellites to the user, and the uplink of command and control data to the spacecraft. Presently, it takes one to three years, with meetings once or twice a week, to determine functional requirements for CMS software design. As an alternative approach to the present technique of developing CMS software functional requirements, an expert system prototype was developed to aid in this function. Specifically, the knowledge base was formulated through interactions with domain experts, and was then linked to an existing expert system application generator called 'Knowledge Engineering System (Version 1.3).' Knowledge base development focused on four major steps: (1) develop the problem-oriented attribute hierachy; (2) determine the knowledge management approach; (3) encode the knowledge base; and (4) validate, test, certify, and evaluate the knowledge base and the expert system prototype as a whole. Backcasting was accomplished for validating and testing the expert system prototype. Knowledge refinement, evaluation, and implementation procedures of the expert system prototype were then transacted.

Qpais: A Web-Based Expert System for Assistedidentification of Quarantine Stored Insect Pests

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Huang, Han; Rajotte, Edwin G.; Li, Zhihong; Chen, Ke; Zhang, Shengfang

Stored insect pests can seriously depredate stored products causing worldwide economic losses. Pests enter countries traveling with transported goods. Inspection and Quarantine activities are essential to prevent the invasion and spread of pests. Identification of quarantine stored insect pests is an important component of the China's Inspection and Quarantine procedure, and it is necessary not only to identify whether the species captured is an invasive species, but determine control procedures for stored insect pests. With the development of information technologies, many expert systems that aid in the identification of agricultural pests have been developed. Expert systems for the identification of quarantine stored insect pests are rare and are mainly developed for stand-alone PCs. This paper describes the development of a web-based expert system for identification of quarantine stored insect pests as part of the China 11th Five-Year National Scientific and Technological Support Project (115 Project). Based on user needs, textual knowledge and images were gathered from the literature and expert interviews. ASP.NET, C# and SQL language were used to program the system. Improvement of identification efficiency and flexibility was achieved using a new inference method called characteristic-select-based spatial distance method. The expert system can assist identifying 150 species of quarantine stored insect pests and provide detailed information for each species. The expert system has also been evaluated using two steps: system testing and identification testing. With a 85% rate of correct identification and high efficiency, the system evaluation shows that this expert system can be used in identification work of quarantine stored insect pests.

The resource envelope as a basis for space station management system scheduling

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bush, Joy; Critchfield, Anna

1987-01-01

The Platform Management System (PMS) Resource Envelope Scheduling System (PRESS) expert system prototype developed for space station scheduling is described. The purpose of developing the prototype was too investigate the resource envelope concept in a practical scheduling application, using a commercially available expert system shell. PRESS is being developed on an IBM PC/AT using Teknowledge, Inc.'s M.1 expert system shell.

An expert system for diagnostics and estimation of steam turbine components condition

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Murmansky, B. E.; Aronson, K. E.; Brodov, Yu. M.

2017-11-01

The report describes an expert system of probability type for diagnostics and state estimation of steam turbine technological subsystems components. The expert system is based on Bayes’ theorem and permits to troubleshoot the equipment components, using expert experience, when there is a lack of baseline information on the indicators of turbine operation. Within a unified approach the expert system solves the problems of diagnosing the flow steam path of the turbine, bearings, thermal expansion system, regulatory system, condensing unit, the systems of regenerative feed-water and hot water heating. The knowledge base of the expert system for turbine unit rotors and bearings contains a description of 34 defects and of 104 related diagnostic features that cause a change in its vibration state. The knowledge base for the condensing unit contains 12 hypotheses and 15 evidence (indications); the procedures are also designated for 20 state parameters estimation. Similar knowledge base containing the diagnostic features and faults hypotheses are formulated for other technological subsystems of turbine unit. With the necessary initial information available a number of problems can be solved within the expert system for various technological subsystems of steam turbine unit: for steam flow path it is the correlation and regression analysis of multifactor relationship between the vibration parameters variations and the regime parameters; for system of thermal expansions it is the evaluation of force acting on the longitudinal keys depending on the temperature state of the turbine cylinder; for condensing unit it is the evaluation of separate effect of the heat exchange surface contamination and of the presence of air in condenser steam space on condenser thermal efficiency performance, as well as the evaluation of term for condenser cleaning and for tube system replacement and so forth. With a lack of initial information the expert system enables to formulate a diagnosis, calculating the probability of faults hypotheses, given the degree of the expert confidence in estimation of turbine components operation parameters.

Proceedings of the international conference on cybernetics and societ

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Not Available

1985-01-01

This book presents the papers given at a conference on artificial intelligence, expert systems and knowledge bases. Topics considered at the conference included automating expert system development, modeling expert systems, causal maps, data covariances, robot vision, image processing, multiprocessors, parallel processing, VLSI structures, man-machine systems, human factors engineering, cognitive decision analysis, natural language, computerized control systems, and cybernetics.

Bonneville Power Administration Communication Alarm Processor expert system:

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Goeltz, R.; Purucker, S.; Tonn, B.

This report describes the Communications Alarm Processor (CAP), a prototype expert system developed for the Bonneville Power Administration by Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The system is designed to receive and diagnose alarms from Bonneville's Microwave Communications System (MCS). The prototype encompasses one of seven branches of the communications network and a subset of alarm systems and alarm types from each system. The expert system employs a backward chaining approach to diagnosing alarms. Alarms are fed into the expert system directly from the communication system via RS232 ports and sophisticated alarm filtering and mailbox software. Alarm diagnoses are presented to operatorsmore » for their review and concurrence before the diagnoses are archived. Statistical software is incorporated to allow analysis of archived data for report generation and maintenance studies. The delivered system resides on a Digital Equipment Corporation VAX 3200 workstation and utilizes Nexpert Object and SAS for the expert system and statistical analysis, respectively. 11 refs., 23 figs., 7 tabs.« less

A governor's guide to emergency management. Volume one, Natural disasters

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2001-02-27

With lives, infrastructure, and resources at stake, governors must become instant experts in emergency management when their states are affected by natural disaster. The purpose of A Governor's Guide to Emergency Management is to provide governors an...

Peer review statement

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

2018-02-01

All papers published in this volume of Journal of Physics: Conference Series have been peer reviewed through processes administered by the proceedings Editors. Reviews were conducted by expert referees to the professional and scientific standards expected of a proceedings journal published by IOP Publishing.

Peer review statement

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

2018-04-01

All papers published in this volume of Journal of Physics: Conference Series have been peer reviewed through processes administered by the proceedings Editors. Reviews were conducted by expert referees to the professional and scientific standards expected of a proceedings journal published by IOP Publishing.

Peer review statement

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

2018-05-01

All papers published in this volume of Journal of Physics: Conference Series have been peer reviewed through processes administered by the proceedings Editors. Reviews were conducted by expert referees to the professional and scientific standards expected of a proceedings journal published by IOP Publishing.

Peer review statement

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

2018-03-01

All papers published in this volume of Journal of Physics: Conference Series have been peer reviewed through processes administered by the proceedings Editors. Reviews were conducted by expert referees to the professional and scientific standards expected of a proceedings journal published by IOP Publishing.

Love Canal Emergency Declaration Area habitability study. Volume 5. Peer review summary: TRC (Technical Review Committee) responses. Final report

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Not Available

Environmental studies were conducted to provide data that could be used by the Commissioner of Health for the State of New York in determining whether the Emergency Declaration Area surrounding the Love Canal hazardous-waste site is habitable. These volumes (II through IV) were reviewed by a peer-review panel of expert scientists. The scientists concluded that each of the three environmental studies was well planned and well executed. Volume V summarizes the peer review and gives additional information or clarifications as requested during the peer review. Volume V also provides additional supplemental statistical analyses requested by the peer reviewer panel.

Artificial Intelligence in Education.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ruyle, Kim E.

Expert systems have made remarkable progress in areas where the knowledge of an expert can be codified and represented, and these systems have many potentially useful applications in education. Expert systems seem "intelligent" because they do not simply repeat a set of predetermined questions during a consultation session, but will have…

Expert Systems and Special Education.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hofmeister, Alan M.; Ferrara, Joseph M.

The application of artificial intelligence to the problems of education is examined. One of the most promising areas in artificial intelligence is expert systems technology which engages the user in a problem-solving diaglogue. Some of the characteristics that make expert systems "intelligent" are identified and exemplified. The rise of…

Human Factors, Habitability and Environmental Health and the Human Integration Design Handbook. Volume 2

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Houbec, Keith; Tillman, Barry; Connolly, Janis

2010-01-01

For decades, Space Life Sciences and NASA as an Agency have considered NASA-STD-3000, Man-Systems Integration Standards, a significant contribution to human spaceflight programs and to human-systems integration in general. The document has been referenced in numerous design standards both within NASA and by organizations throughout the world. With research program and project results being realized, advances in technology and new information in a variety of topic areas now available, the time arrived to update this extensive suite of requirements and design information. During the past several years, a multi-NASA center effort has been underway to write the update to NASA-STD-3000 with standards and design guidance that would be applicable to all future human spaceflight programs. NASA-STD-3001 - Volumes 1 and 2 - and the Human Integration Design Handbook (HIDH) were created. Volume 1, Crew Health, establishes NASA s spaceflight crew health standards for the pre-flight, in-flight, and post-flight phases of human spaceflight. Volume 2, Human Factors, Habitability and Environmental Health, focuses on the requirements of human-system integration and how the human crew interacts with other systems, and how the human and the system function together to accomplish the tasks for mission success. The HIDH is a compendium of human spaceflight history and knowledge, and provides useful background information and research findings. And as the HIDH is a stand-alone companion to the Standards, the maintenance of the document has been streamlined. This unique and flexible approach ensures that the content is current and addresses the fundamental advances of human performance and human capabilities and constraints research. Current work focuses on the development of new sections of Volume 2 and collecting updates to the HIDH. The new sections in development expand the scope of the standard and address mission operations and support operations. This effort is again collaboration with representatives from the Johnson Space Center Missions Operations and Space Life Sciences Directorates and the Engineering Directorate from Kennedy Space Center as well as discipline experts from across the Agency.

The adversarial court system and the expert medical witness: 'The truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth?'.

PubMed

Ryan, Matthew

2003-06-01

This discussion aims to provide the occasional medical expert witness with background knowledge of the adversarial court system and the role of the medical expert witness within it. The parallel evolution of the adversarial and inquisitorial legal systems has been more out of tradition rather than any systematic review of the effectiveness of one system or the other. Both legal systems have their merits and limitations. Witnesses within the adversarial system are required to present evidence in a structured and highly stylized format consisting of 'evidence in chief' followed by 'cross-examination'. This format is an attempt to exclude unreliable evidence. The medical witness is an 'expert' by means of specialized knowledge not possessed by the general public. This distinction allows the expert medical witness to offer his or her opinion as evidence. There remain several limitations to the expert's evidence and these relate to common knowledge, field of expertise and the 'ultimate issue'. The current practice of selection of expert medical witnesses is seriously flawed with several pressures operating to maximise bias and inaccurate testimony. Doctors should not only anticipate change in this area they should lead reform in this area.

Automation technology for aerospace power management

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Larsen, R. L.

1982-01-01

The growing size and complexity of spacecraft power systems coupled with limited space/ground communications necessitate increasingly automated onboard control systems. Research in computer science, particularly artificial intelligence has developed methods and techniques for constructing man-machine systems with problem-solving expertise in limited domains which may contribute to the automation of power systems. Since these systems perform tasks which are typically performed by human experts they have become known as Expert Systems. A review of the current state of the art in expert systems technology is presented, and potential applications in power systems management are considered. It is concluded that expert systems appear to have significant potential for improving the productivity of operations personnel in aerospace applications, and in automating the control of many aerospace systems.

An Expert System for the Development of Efficient Parallel Code

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Jost, Gabriele; Chun, Robert; Jin, Hao-Qiang; Labarta, Jesus; Gimenez, Judit

2004-01-01

We have built the prototype of an expert system to assist the user in the development of efficient parallel code. The system was integrated into the parallel programming environment that is currently being developed at NASA Ames. The expert system interfaces to tools for automatic parallelization and performance analysis. It uses static program structure information and performance data in order to automatically determine causes of poor performance and to make suggestions for improvements. In this paper we give an overview of our programming environment, describe the prototype implementation of our expert system, and demonstrate its usefulness with several case studies.

Using a CLIPS expert system to automatically manage TCP/IP networks and their components

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Faul, Ben M.

1991-01-01

A expert system that can directly manage networks components on a Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) network is described. Previous expert systems for managing networks have focused on managing network faults after they occur. However, this proactive expert system can monitor and control network components in near real time. The ability to directly manage network elements from the C Language Integrated Production System (CLIPS) is accomplished by the integration of the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) and a Abstract Syntax Notation (ASN) parser into the CLIPS artificial intelligence language.

An overview of expert systems. [artificial intelligence

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gevarter, W. B.

1982-01-01

An expert system is defined and its basic structure is discussed. The knowledge base, the inference engine, and uses of expert systems are discussed. Architecture is considered, including choice of solution direction, reasoning in the presence of uncertainty, searching small and large search spaces, handling large search spaces by transforming them and by developing alternative or additional spaces, and dealing with time. Existing expert systems are reviewed. Tools for building such systems, construction, and knowledge acquisition and learning are discussed. Centers of research and funding sources are listed. The state-of-the-art, current problems, required research, and future trends are summarized.

Expert Systems Technology and Its Implication for Archives. National Archives Technical Information Paper No. 9.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Michelson, Avra

This report introduces archivists to the potential of expert systems for improving archives administration and alerts them to ways in which they can expect intelligent technologies to impact federal record-keeping systems and scholarly research methods. The report introduces the topic by describing expert systems used in three Fortune 500…

Perspective on intelligent avionics

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Jones, H.L.

1987-01-01

Technical issues which could potentially limit the capability and acceptibility of expert systems decision-making for avionics applications are addressed. These issues are: real-time AI, mission-critical software, conventional algorithms, pilot interface, knowledge acquisition, and distributed expert systems. Examples from on-going expert system development programs are presented to illustrate likely architectures and applications of future intelligent avionic systems. 13 references.

A Computer-Based, Interactive Videodisc Job Aid and Expert System for Electron Beam Lithography Integration and Diagnostic Procedures.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stevenson, Kimberly

This master's thesis describes the development of an expert system and interactive videodisc computer-based instructional job aid used for assisting in the integration of electron beam lithography devices. Comparable to all comprehensive training, expert system and job aid development require a criterion-referenced systems approach treatment to…

Artificial Intelligence, Expert Systems, Natural Language Interfaces, Knowledge Engineering and the Librarian.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Davies, Jim

This paper begins by examining concepts of artificial intelligence (AI) and discusses various definitions of the concept that have been suggested in the literature. The nesting relationship of expert systems within the broader framework of AI is described, and expert systems are characterized as knowledge-based systems (KBS) which attempt to solve…

A Model-Based Expert System for Space Power Distribution Diagnostics

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Quinn, Todd M.; Schlegelmilch, Richard F.

1994-01-01

When engineers diagnose system failures, they often use models to confirm system operation. This concept has produced a class of advanced expert systems that perform model-based diagnosis. A model-based diagnostic expert system for the Space Station Freedom electrical power distribution test bed is currently being developed at the NASA Lewis Research Center. The objective of this expert system is to autonomously detect and isolate electrical fault conditions. Marple, a software package developed at TRW, provides a model-based environment utilizing constraint suspension. Originally, constraint suspension techniques were developed for digital systems. However, Marple provides the mechanisms for applying this approach to analog systems such as the test bed, as well. The expert system was developed using Marple and Lucid Common Lisp running on a Sun Sparc-2 workstation. The Marple modeling environment has proved to be a useful tool for investigating the various aspects of model-based diagnostics. This report describes work completed to date and lessons learned while employing model-based diagnostics using constraint suspension within an analog system.

Tuberculosis-Diagnostic Expert System: an architecture for translating patients information from the web for use in tuberculosis diagnosis.

PubMed

Osamor, Victor C; Azeta, Ambrose A; Ajulo, Oluseyi O

2014-12-01

Over 1.5-2 million tuberculosis deaths occur annually. Medical professionals are faced with a lot of challenges in delivering good health-care with unassisted automation in hospitals where there are several patients who need the doctor's attention. To automate the pre-laboratory screening process against tuberculosis infection to aid diagnosis and make it fast and accessible to the public via the Internet. The expert system we have built is designed to also take care of people who do not have access to medical experts, but would want to check their medical status. A rule-based approach has been used, and unified modeling language and the client-server architecture technique were applied to model the system and to develop it as a web-based expert system for tuberculosis diagnosis. Algorithmic rules in the Tuberculosis-Diagnosis Expert System necessitate decision coverage where tuberculosis is either suspected or not suspected. The architecture consists of a rule base, knowledge base, and patient database. These units interact with the inference engine, which receives patient' data through the Internet via a user interface. We present the architecture of the Tuberculosis-Diagnosis Expert System and its implementation. We evaluated it for usability to determine the level of effectiveness, efficiency and user satisfaction. The result of the usability evaluation reveals that the system has a usability of 4.08 out of a scale of 5. This is an indication of a more-than-average system performance. Several existing expert systems have been developed for the purpose of supporting different medical diagnoses, but none is designed to translate tuberculosis patients' symptomatic data for online pre-laboratory screening. Our Tuberculosis-Diagnosis Expert System is an effective solution for the implementation of the needed web-based expert system diagnosis. © The Author(s) 2013.

CRN5EXP: Expert system for statistical quality control

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hentea, Mariana

1991-01-01

The purpose of the Expert System CRN5EXP is to assist in checking the quality of the coils at two very important mills: Hot Rolling and Cold Rolling in a steel plant. The system interprets the statistical quality control charts, diagnoses and predicts the quality of the steel. Measurements of process control variables are recorded in a database and sample statistics such as the mean and the range are computed and plotted on a control chart. The chart is analyzed through patterns using the C Language Integrated Production System (CLIPS) and a forward chaining technique to reach a conclusion about the causes of defects and to take management measures for the improvement of the quality control techniques. The Expert System combines the certainty factors associated with the process control variables to predict the quality of the steel. The paper presents the approach to extract data from the database, the reason to combine certainty factors, the architecture and the use of the Expert System. However, the interpretation of control charts patterns requires the human expert's knowledge and lends to Expert Systems rules.

Getting expert systems off the ground: Lessons learned from integrating model-based diagnostics with prototype flight hardware

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Stephan, Amy; Erikson, Carol A.

1991-01-01

As an initial attempt to introduce expert system technology into an onboard environment, a model based diagnostic system using the TRW MARPLE software tool was integrated with prototype flight hardware and its corresponding control software. Because this experiment was designed primarily to test the effectiveness of the model based reasoning technique used, the expert system ran on a separate hardware platform, and interactions between the control software and the model based diagnostics were limited. While this project met its objective of showing that model based reasoning can effectively isolate failures in flight hardware, it also identified the need for an integrated development path for expert system and control software for onboard applications. In developing expert systems that are ready for flight, artificial intelligence techniques must be evaluated to determine whether they offer a real advantage onboard, identify which diagnostic functions should be performed by the expert systems and which are better left to the procedural software, and work closely with both the hardware and the software developers from the beginning of a project to produce a well designed and thoroughly integrated application.

Expert systems for automated maintenance of a Mars oxygen production system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Huang, Jen-Kuang; Ho, Ming-Tsang; Ash, Robert L.

1992-08-01

Application of expert system concepts to a breadboard Mars oxygen processor unit have been studied and tested. The research was directed toward developing the methodology required to enable autonomous operation and control of these simple chemical processors at Mars. Failure detection and isolation was the key area of concern, and schemes using forward chaining, backward chaining, knowledge-based expert systems, and rule-based expert systems were examined. Tests and simulations were conducted that investigated self-health checkout, emergency shutdown, and fault detection, in addition to normal control activities. A dynamic system model was developed using the Bond-Graph technique. The dynamic model agreed well with tests involving sudden reductions in throughput. However, nonlinear effects were observed during tests that incorporated step function increases in flow variables. Computer simulations and experiments have demonstrated the feasibility of expert systems utilizing rule-based diagnosis and decision-making algorithms.

Expert systems for space power supply - Design, analysis, and evaluation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Cooper, Ralph S.; Thomson, M. Kemer; Hoshor, Alan

1987-01-01

The feasibility of applying expert systems to the conceptual design, analysis, and evaluation of space power supplies in particular, and complex systems in general is evaluated. To do this, the space power supply design process and its associated knowledge base were analyzed and characterized in a form suitable for computer emulation of a human expert. The existing expert system tools and the results achieved with them were evaluated to assess their applicability to power system design. Some new concepts for combining program architectures (modular expert systems and algorithms) with information about the domain were applied to create a 'deep' system for handling the complex design problem. NOVICE, a code to solve a simplified version of a scoping study of a wide variety of power supply types for a broad range of missions, has been developed, programmed, and tested as a concrete feasibility demonstration.

Expert Review of Pedagogical Activities at Therapeutic Recreation Camps

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kiselev, N. N.; Kiseleva, E. V.

2015-01-01

An analysis of pedagogical expert reviews at children's therapeutic recreation camps in Novosibirsk Region shows that it is necessary to implement an expert review system that plays a supporting and developmental role. Such a system should allow teams of teachers to submit their work to expert review and to move forward by reflecting on their…

A knowledge based expert system for propellant system monitoring at the Kennedy Space Center

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Jamieson, J. R.; Delaune, C.; Scarl, E.

1985-01-01

The Lox Expert System (LES) is the first attempt to build a realtime expert system capable of simulating the thought processes of NASA system engineers, with regard to fluids systems analysis and troubleshooting. An overview of the hardware and software describes the techniques used, and possible applications to other process control systems. LES is now in the advanced development stage, with a full implementation planned for late 1985.

Expert System Detects Power-Distribution Faults

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Walters, Jerry L.; Quinn, Todd M.

1994-01-01

Autonomous Power Expert (APEX) computer program is prototype expert-system program detecting faults in electrical-power-distribution system. Assists human operators in diagnosing faults and deciding what adjustments or repairs needed for immediate recovery from faults or for maintenance to correct initially nonthreatening conditions that could develop into faults. Written in Lisp.

CORMIX1: AN EXPERT SYSTEM FOR MIXING ZONE ANALYSIS OF TOXIC AND CONVENTIONAL, SINGLE PORT AQUATIC DISCHARGES

EPA Science Inventory

An expert system, CORMIX1, was developed to predict the dilution and trajectory of a single buoyant discharge into an unstratified aquatic environment with and without crossflow. The system uses knowledge and inference rules obtained from hydrodynamic experts to classify and pred...

Management Expert Systems (M.E.S.): A Framework for Development and Implementation.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Moser, Jorge; Christoph, Richard

1987-01-01

This description of the development of expert systems designed to solve management problems focuses on the issue of corporate divestment as an example. Software needs are discussed, and an example of a management expert system for divestment analysis at James Madison University is briefly described. (Author/LRW)

Expert systems identify fossils and manage large paleontological databases

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Beightol, D.S.; Conrad, M.A.

EXPAL is a computer program permitting creation and maintenance of comprehensive databases in marine paleontology. It is designed to assist specialists and non-specialists. EXPAL includes a powerful expert system based on the morphological descriptors specific to a given group of fossils. The expert system may be used, for example, to describe and automatically identify an unknown specimen. EXPAL was first applied to Dasycladales (Calcareous green algae). Projects are under way for corresponding expert systems and databases on planktonic foraminifers and calpionellids. EXPAL runs on an IBM XT or compatible microcomputer.

Development of a Spacecraft Materials Selector Expert System

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Pippin, G.; Kauffman, W. (Technical Monitor)

2002-01-01

This report contains a description of the knowledge base tool and examples of its use. A downloadable version of the Spacecraft Materials Selector (SMS) knowledge base is available through the NASA Space Environments and Effects Program. The "Spacecraft Materials Selector" knowledge base is part of an electronic expert system. The expert system consists of an inference engine that contains the "decision-making" code and the knowledge base that contains the selected body of information. The inference engine is a software package previously developed at Boeing, called the Boeing Expert System Tool (BEST) kit.

Signal Processing Expert Code (SPEC)

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Ames, H.S.

1985-12-01

The purpose of this paper is to describe a prototype expert system called SPEC which was developed to demonstrate the utility of providing an intelligent interface for users of SIG, a general purpose signal processing code. The expert system is written in NIL, runs on a VAX 11/750 and consists of a backward chaining inference engine and an English-like parser. The inference engine uses knowledge encoded as rules about the formats of SIG commands and about how to perform frequency analyses using SIG. The system demonstrated that expert system can be used to control existing codes.

Expert Systems In Medical Studies - A New Twist

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Slagle, James R.; Long, John M.; Wick, Michael R.; Matts, John P.; Leon, Arthur S.

1986-03-01

The use of experts to evaluate large amounts of trial data results in increasingly expensive and time consuming research. We are investigating the role expert systems can play in reducing the time and expense of research projects. Current methods in large clinical studies for evaluating data are often crude and superficial. We have developed, for a large clinical trial, an expert system for analysis of treadmill exercise ECG test results. In the cases we are studying, a patient is given a treadmill exercise ECG test once a year for five years. Pairs of these exercise tests are then evaluated by cardiologists to determine the condition of the patient's heart. The results of our system show great promise for the use of expert systems in reducing the time and expense of large clinical trials.

A center for commercial development of space: Real-time satellite mapping. Remote sensing-based agricultural information expert system

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hadipriono, Fabian C.; Diaz, Carlos F.; Merritt, Earl S.

1989-01-01

The research project results in a powerful yet user friendly CROPCAST expert system for use by a client to determine the crop yield production of a certain crop field. The study is based on the facts that heuristic assessment and decision making in agriculture are significant and dominate much of agribusiness. Transfer of the expert knowledge concerning remote sensing based crop yield production into a specific expert system is the key program in this study. A knowledge base consisting of a root frame, CROP-YIELD-FORECAST, and four subframes, namely, SATELLITE, PLANT-PHYSIOLOGY, GROUND, and MODEL were developed to accommodate the production rules obtained from the domain expert. The expert system shell Personal Consultant Plus version 4.0. was used for this purpose. An external geographic program was integrated to the system. This project is the first part of a completely built expert system. The study reveals that much effort was given to the development of the rules. Such effort is inevitable if workable, efficient, and accurate rules are desired. Furthermore, abundant help statements and graphics were included. Internal and external display routines add to the visual capability of the system. The work results in a useful tool for the client for making decisions on crop yield production.

Spacecraft attitude control using a smart control system

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Buckley, Brian; Wheatcraft, Louis

1992-01-01

Traditionally, spacecraft attitude control has been implemented using control loops written in native code for a space hardened processor. The Naval Research Lab has taken this approach during the development of the Attitude Control Electronics (ACE) package. After the system was developed and delivered, NRL decided to explore alternate technologies to accomplish this same task more efficiently. The approach taken by NRL was to implement the ACE control loops using systems technologies. The purpose of this effort was to: (1) research capabilities required of an expert system in processing a classic closed-loop control algorithm; (2) research the development environment required to design and test an embedded expert systems environment; (3) research the complexity of design and development of expert systems versus a conventional approach; and (4) test the resulting systems against the flight acceptance test software for both response and accuracy. Two expert systems were selected to implement the control loops. Criteria used for the selection of the expert systems included that they had to run in both embedded systems and ground based environments. Using two different expert systems allowed a comparison of the real-time capabilities, inferencing capabilities, and the ground-based development environment. The two expert systems chosen for the evaluation were Spacecraft Command Language (SCL), and NEXTPERT Object. SCL is a smart control system produced for the NRL by Interface and Control Systems (ICS). SCL was developed to be used for real-time command, control, and monitoring of a new generation of spacecraft. NEXPERT Object is a commercially available product developed by Neuron Data. Results of the effort were evaluated using the ACE test bed. The ACE test bed had been developed and used to test the original flight hardware and software using simulators and flight-like interfaces. The test bed was used for testing the expert systems in a 'near-flight' environment. The technical approach, the system architecture, the development environments, knowledge base development, and results of this effort are detailed.

Automatic segmentation and volumetry of multiple sclerosis brain lesions from MR images

PubMed Central

Jain, Saurabh; Sima, Diana M.; Ribbens, Annemie; Cambron, Melissa; Maertens, Anke; Van Hecke, Wim; De Mey, Johan; Barkhof, Frederik; Steenwijk, Martijn D.; Daams, Marita; Maes, Frederik; Van Huffel, Sabine; Vrenken, Hugo; Smeets, Dirk

2015-01-01

The location and extent of white matter lesions on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) are important criteria for diagnosis, follow-up and prognosis of multiple sclerosis (MS). Clinical trials have shown that quantitative values, such as lesion volumes, are meaningful in MS prognosis. Manual lesion delineation for the segmentation of lesions is, however, time-consuming and suffers from observer variability. In this paper, we propose MSmetrix, an accurate and reliable automatic method for lesion segmentation based on MRI, independent of scanner or acquisition protocol and without requiring any training data. In MSmetrix, 3D T1-weighted and FLAIR MR images are used in a probabilistic model to detect white matter (WM) lesions as an outlier to normal brain while segmenting the brain tissue into grey matter, WM and cerebrospinal fluid. The actual lesion segmentation is performed based on prior knowledge about the location (within WM) and the appearance (hyperintense on FLAIR) of lesions. The accuracy of MSmetrix is evaluated by comparing its output with expert reference segmentations of 20 MRI datasets of MS patients. Spatial overlap (Dice) between the MSmetrix and the expert lesion segmentation is 0.67 ± 0.11. The intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) equals 0.8 indicating a good volumetric agreement between the MSmetrix and expert labelling. The reproducibility of MSmetrix' lesion volumes is evaluated based on 10 MS patients, scanned twice with a short interval on three different scanners. The agreement between the first and the second scan on each scanner is evaluated through the spatial overlap and absolute lesion volume difference between them. The spatial overlap was 0.69 ± 0.14 and absolute total lesion volume difference between the two scans was 0.54 ± 0.58 ml. Finally, the accuracy and reproducibility of MSmetrix compare favourably with other publicly available MS lesion segmentation algorithms, applied on the same data using default parameter settings. PMID:26106562

PRISM: An open source framework for the interactive design of GPU volume rendering shaders.

PubMed

Drouin, Simon; Collins, D Louis

2018-01-01

Direct volume rendering has become an essential tool to explore and analyse 3D medical images. Despite several advances in the field, it remains a challenge to produce an image that highlights the anatomy of interest, avoids occlusion of important structures, provides an intuitive perception of shape and depth while retaining sufficient contextual information. Although the computer graphics community has proposed several solutions to address specific visualization problems, the medical imaging community still lacks a general volume rendering implementation that can address a wide variety of visualization use cases while avoiding complexity. In this paper, we propose a new open source framework called the Programmable Ray Integration Shading Model, or PRISM, that implements a complete GPU ray-casting solution where critical parts of the ray integration algorithm can be replaced to produce new volume rendering effects. A graphical user interface allows clinical users to easily experiment with pre-existing rendering effect building blocks drawn from an open database. For programmers, the interface enables real-time editing of the code inside the blocks. We show that in its default mode, the PRISM framework produces images very similar to those produced by a widely-adopted direct volume rendering implementation in VTK at comparable frame rates. More importantly, we demonstrate the flexibility of the framework by showing how several volume rendering techniques can be implemented in PRISM with no more than a few lines of code. Finally, we demonstrate the simplicity of our system in a usability study with 5 medical imaging expert subjects who have none or little experience with volume rendering. The PRISM framework has the potential to greatly accelerate development of volume rendering for medical applications by promoting sharing and enabling faster development iterations and easier collaboration between engineers and clinical personnel.

PRISM: An open source framework for the interactive design of GPU volume rendering shaders

PubMed Central

Collins, D. Louis

2018-01-01

Direct volume rendering has become an essential tool to explore and analyse 3D medical images. Despite several advances in the field, it remains a challenge to produce an image that highlights the anatomy of interest, avoids occlusion of important structures, provides an intuitive perception of shape and depth while retaining sufficient contextual information. Although the computer graphics community has proposed several solutions to address specific visualization problems, the medical imaging community still lacks a general volume rendering implementation that can address a wide variety of visualization use cases while avoiding complexity. In this paper, we propose a new open source framework called the Programmable Ray Integration Shading Model, or PRISM, that implements a complete GPU ray-casting solution where critical parts of the ray integration algorithm can be replaced to produce new volume rendering effects. A graphical user interface allows clinical users to easily experiment with pre-existing rendering effect building blocks drawn from an open database. For programmers, the interface enables real-time editing of the code inside the blocks. We show that in its default mode, the PRISM framework produces images very similar to those produced by a widely-adopted direct volume rendering implementation in VTK at comparable frame rates. More importantly, we demonstrate the flexibility of the framework by showing how several volume rendering techniques can be implemented in PRISM with no more than a few lines of code. Finally, we demonstrate the simplicity of our system in a usability study with 5 medical imaging expert subjects who have none or little experience with volume rendering. The PRISM framework has the potential to greatly accelerate development of volume rendering for medical applications by promoting sharing and enabling faster development iterations and easier collaboration between engineers and clinical personnel. PMID:29534069

Using Ada to implement the operations management system in a community of experts

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Frank, M. S.

1986-01-01

An architecture is described for the Space Station Operations Management System (OMS), consisting of a distributed expert system framework implemented in Ada. The motivation for such a scheme is based on the desire to integrate the very diverse elements of the OMS while taking maximum advantage of knowledge based systems technology. Part of the foundation of an Ada based distributed expert system was accomplished in the form of a proof of concept prototype for the KNOMES project (Knowledge-based Maintenance Expert System). This prototype successfully used concurrently active experts to accomplish monitoring and diagnosis for the Remote Manipulator System. The basic concept of this software architecture is named ACTORS for Ada Cognitive Task ORganization Scheme. It is when one considers the overall problem of integrating all of the OMS elements into a cooperative system that the AI solution stands out. By utilizing a distributed knowledge based system as the framework for OMS, it is possible to integrate those components which need to share information in an intelligent manner.

A middle man approach to knowledge acquisition in expert systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Jordan, Janice A.; Lin, Min-Jin; Mayer, Richard J.; Sterle, Mark E.

1990-01-01

The Weed Control Advisor (WCA) is a robust expert system that has been successfully implemented on an IBM AT class microcomputer in CLIPS. The goal of the WCA was to demonstrate the feasibility of providing an economical, efficient, user friendly system through which Texas rice producers could obtain expert level knowledge regarding herbicide application for weed control. During the development phase of the WCA, an improved knowledge acquisition method which we call the Middle Man Approach (MMA) was applied to facilitate the communication process between the domain experts and the knowledge engineer. The MMA served to circumvent the problems associated with the more traditional forms of knowledge acquisition by placing the Middle Man, a semi-expert in the problem domain with some computer expertise, at the site of system development. The middle man was able to contribute to system development in two major ways. First, the Middle Man had experience working in rice production and could assume many of the responsibilities normally performed by the domain experts such as explaining the background of the problem domain and determining the important relations. Second, the Middle Man was familiar with computers and worked closely with the system developers to update the rules after the domain experts reviewed the prototype, contribute to the help menus and explanation portions of the expert system, conduct the testing that is required to insure that the expert system gives the expected results answer questions in a timely way, help the knowledge engineer structure the domain knowledge into a useable form, and provide insight into the end user's profile which helped in the development of the simple user friendly interface. The final results were not only that both time expended and costs were greatly reduced by using the MMA, but the quality of the system was improved. This papa will introduce the WCA system and then discuss traditional knowledge acquisition along with some of the problems often associated with it, the MMA methodology, and its application to the WCA development.

Strategies for the prevention of MP3-induced hearing loss among adolescents: expert opinions from a Delphi study.

PubMed

Vogel, Ineke; Brug, Johannes; van der Ploeg, Catharina P B; Raat, Hein

2009-05-01

To identify parties involved in the prevention of MP3-induced hearing loss among adolescents and potentially effective prevention strategies and interventions. Thirty experts in fields such as scientific research, medical practice, community health professions, education, youth work, music entertainment, and enforcement authorities participated in a qualitative, electronic, 3-round, Web-based Delphi study. Multiple parties involved in the prevention of MP3-induced hearing loss among adolescents were identified; the most relevant are the adolescents themselves, their parents, manufacturers of MP3 players and earphones, and the authorities. The experts did not expect that adolescents in general would perform the necessary protective behaviors to prevent MP3-induced hearing loss. Two environmental health protection measures were identified as both relevant and feasible to be implemented (ie, authorities encourage manufacturers to produce safer products, and public health campaigns will be held to improve knowledge of the risks of high-volume music, possible protective measures, and consequences of hearing loss). Authorities, the music industry in general, and especially manufacturers of MP3 players and earphones should recognize their responsibility and create a safer MP3-listening environment by taking measures to protect today's youth from the dangers of listening to high-volume music on MP3 players.

Semi-automatic generation of medical tele-expert opinion for primary care physician.

PubMed

Biermann, E; Rihl, J; Schenker, M; Standl, E

2003-01-01

A computer-based system has been developed for the generation of medical expert opinions on the insulin-resistance syndrome, based on clinical data obtained from primary care physicians. An expert opinion for each patient was generated by using a decision tree for entering individual text modules and by adding optional free text. The expert opinions were returned by e-mail, telefax or by ordinary mail. 1389 primary care physician sent anonymous data sets and requested expert opinions for a total of 3768 patients. Through the set up of a rule-based system an automation of the generation of the expert opinions could be achieved and the generation time dropped from initially 40 minutes to less than 5 minutes at the end. By using predefined text modules and a rule based system, a large number of medical expert opinions can be generated with relatively few additional resources.

Peer review statement

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

2018-03-01

All papers published in this volume of IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science have been peer reviewed through processes administered by the proceedings Editors. Reviews were conducted by expert referees to the professional and scientific standards expected of a proceedings journal published by IOP Publishing.

Peer review statement

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

2018-05-01

All papers published in this volume of IOP Conference Series: Materials Science and Engineering have been peer reviewed through processes administered by the proceedings Editors. Reviews were conducted by expert referees to the professional and scientific standards expected of a proceedings journal published by IOP Publishing.

Peer review statement

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

2017-11-01

All papers published in this volume of IOP Conference Series: Materials Science and Engineering have been peer reviewed through processes administered by the proceedings Editors. Reviews were conducted by expert referees to the professional and scientific standards expected of a proceedings journal published by IOP Publishing.

Peer review statement

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

2017-10-01

All papers published in this volume of IOP Conference Series: Materials Science and Engineering have been peer reviewed through processes administered by the proceedings Editors. Reviews were conducted by expert referees to the professional and scientific standards expected of a proceedings journal published by IOP Publishing.

Peer review statement

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

2017-09-01

All papers published in this volume of IOP Conference Series: Materials Science and Engineering have been peer reviewed through processes administered by the proceedings Editors. Reviews were conducted by expert referees to the professional and scientific standards expected of a proceedings journal published by IOP Publishing.

Peer review statement

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

2018-02-01

All papers published in this volume of IOP Conference Series: Materials Science and Engineering have been peer reviewed through processes administered by the proceedings Editors. Reviews were conducted by expert referees to the professional and scientific standards expected of a proceedings journal published by IOP Publishing.

Peer review statement

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

2017-12-01

All papers published in this volume of IOP Conference Series: Materials Science and Engineering have been peer reviewed through processes administered by the proceedings Editors. Reviews were conducted by expert referees to the professional and scientific standards expected of a proceedings journal published by IOP Publishing.

Peer review statement

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

2018-03-01

All papers published in this volume of IOP Conference Series: Materials Science and Engineering have been peer reviewed through processes administered by the proceedings Editors. Reviews were conducted by expert referees to the professional and scientific standards expected of a proceedings journal published by IOP Publishing.

Denoising and 4D visualization of OCT images

PubMed Central

Gargesha, Madhusudhana; Jenkins, Michael W.; Rollins, Andrew M.; Wilson, David L.

2009-01-01

We are using Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) to image structure and function of the developing embryonic heart in avian models. Fast OCT imaging produces very large 3D (2D + time) and 4D (3D volumes + time) data sets, which greatly challenge ones ability to visualize results. Noise in OCT images poses additional challenges. We created an algorithm with a quick, data set specific optimization for reduction of both shot and speckle noise and applied it to 3D visualization and image segmentation in OCT. When compared to baseline algorithms (median, Wiener, orthogonal wavelet, basic non-orthogonal wavelet), a panel of experts judged the new algorithm to give much improved volume renderings concerning both noise and 3D visualization. Specifically, the algorithm provided a better visualization of the myocardial and endocardial surfaces, and the interaction of the embryonic heart tube with surrounding tissue. Quantitative evaluation using an image quality figure of merit also indicated superiority of the new algorithm. Noise reduction aided semi-automatic 2D image segmentation, as quantitatively evaluated using a contour distance measure with respect to an expert segmented contour. In conclusion, the noise reduction algorithm should be quite useful for visualization and quantitative measurements (e.g., heart volume, stroke volume, contraction velocity, etc.) in OCT embryo images. With its semi-automatic, data set specific optimization, we believe that the algorithm can be applied to OCT images from other applications. PMID:18679509

The nutrition advisor expert system

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Huse, Scott M.; Shyne, Scott S.

1991-01-01

The Nutrition Advisor Expert System (NAES) is an expert system written in the C Language Integrated Production System (CLIPS). NAES provides expert knowledge and guidance into the complex world of nutrition management by capturing the knowledge of an expert and placing it at the user's fingertips. Specifically, NAES enables the user to: (1) obtain precise nutrition information for food items; (2) perform nutritional analysis of meal(s), flagging deficiencies based upon the U.S. Recommended Daily Allowances; (3) predict possible ailments based upon observed nutritional deficiency trends; (4) obtain a top ten listing of food items for a given nutrient; and (5) conveniently upgrade the data base. An explanation facility for the ailment prediction feature is also provided to document the reasoning process.

[System of telesonography with synchronous teleconsultations and asynchronous telediagnoses (Togo)].

PubMed

Adambounou, K; Farin, F; Boucher, A; Adjenou, K V; Gbeassor, M; N'dakena, K; Vincent, N; Arbeille, P

2012-01-01

Ultrasonography is an important nonirradiating diagnostic medical imaging procedure, frequently used, especially in urgent circumstances. This relatively inexpensive noninvasive examination makes it possible to diagnose disorders in various parts of the human body, by examining, for example, the abdomen and pelvis, the cardiovascular system, and the muscles and joints. Ultrasound is also an operator-dependent examination, in that the quality of the result depends on precision in the manipulation of the probe. Unfortunately, many small medical centers and isolated sites do not have an appropriate well-trained sonographer to perform initial evaluations, and an untrained operator cannot capture the appropriate echographic views required for a safe diagnosis of current patients, even with realtime vocal guidance (personal data). The lack of experienced physicians or qualified technicians means that diagnostic ultrasound is not always accessible to patients for rapid examination worldwide, especially in Africa, Amazonia or near the North or South Poles. This situation has led to the development of a new concept of telemedicine: telesonography, with a remote ultrasound diagnosis either in real time (synchronous) or delayed (asynchronous; store-and-forward). These systems of real-time telesonography and data transmission require expensive and complex technology with sophisticated equipment not available in many developing countries. The purpose of this study is to design a low-cost real-time system of telesonography for teleconsultations with experts and a delayed telediagnostic mode between isolated peripheral hospitals and a University Hospital center (UHC). An IP camera and an internet video server were installed in a geographically isolated site equipped with an ultrasound machine and an operator with basic training in its use. Synchronous teleconsultation (second-opinion diagnosis) is possible via internet with a UHC expert. If no ultrasound operator is available at the isolated center, volume capture-and-store software is used. Later on, the UHC expert uses Echo-Cnes 3D software to reconstruct the organs scanned. The expert can then navigate within the reconstructed volume and display any plane. Volume capture is performed by tilting (± 40°) to both sides vertically to the skin. To locate the probe on the organ acoustic window, the novice operator uses acoustic window mapping designed by our laboratory (UMPS-Tours). The system was tested between the Tsévié regional hospital in Togo (40 km from Lomé, Togo, and 4500 km from Tours, France) and the UHC at Lomé and the Trousseau UHC in Tours. With an average internet connection of 2 Mbps, the quality of transmission of the background video and ultrasound sequence videos from Tsévié towards Lomé was satisfactory (16 images/s) with a maximal transmission delay of 1.5 s (almost in real time). A video conference between the Trousseau UHC in Tours, the UHC Campus in Lomé and the Tsévié Hospital was possible and the bandwidth allowed the Lomé experts (radiologists) to perform real-time telesonography with very satisfactory results (ultrasound diagnoses obtained) for abdominal (n = 5), pelvic (n = 3), obstetric (n = 2), prostate (n = 2) and mammary (n = 2) ultrasound, both normal and pathological. Because the doctors at Tsévié had minimal experience with ultrasound, complete ultrasound diagnoses were obtained by combining remote voice instruction for image capture and full diagnosis by Echo-Cnes. Asynchronous telediagnosis was also performed with Tsévié operators who lacked ultrasound expertise but could perform the required tilt movements (after 3 training sessions). The expert at Trousseau UHC performed real-time telesonography with the Tsévié Hospital for two cases requiring abdominal images and another viewing of the prostate. He also performed asynchronous reconstruction of the abdominal organs with Echo-Cnes. A demonstration seminar of our platform was organized successfully for 2 days during the 9(th) Congress of the French-speaking Black Africa Society of Radiology (SRANF in French) held from 4 till 6 May 2011 at the hotel EDA OBA. During this seminar, 4 ultrasound teleconsultations were performed from the hotel by eminent African radiologists. This preliminary study, although limited in the number of patients, allowed us to assess the technical features of our telesonography system. Togo, a developing country with a very modest infrastructure for information and communication, was an ideal site for a first test of this platform. Our system of remote ultrasound requires the local patient center to be equipped simply with a 2D ultrasound machine. The cost is quite low, in comparison to the asynchronous techniques requiring 3D devices. The high cost of 3D or 4D ultrasound machines and their fragility make it difficult to install them at the isolated sites and was a serious obstacle in the development of this system. If the center already has a 2D device and a computer, the cost to equip it with the remaining communications materials is 1,500 €. The experience in Togo clearly highlighted the possibility of teletraining and complete teleradiology with our system. The next stage of this work will seek to validate the results of this preliminary experience on a larger sample with more precise assessment criteria in 2012. The results will allow the widespread dissemination and routine use of this system in developing countries.

Clinical usefulness of the definitions for defining characteristics of activity intolerance, excess fluid volume and decreased cardiac output in decompensated heart failure: a descriptive exploratory study.

PubMed

de Souza, Vanessa; Zeitoun, Sandra Salloum; Lopes, Camila Takao; de Oliveira, Ana Paula Dias; Lopes, Juliana de Lima; de Barros, Alba Lucia Bottura Leite

2015-09-01

To assess the clinical usefulness of the operational definitions for the defining characteristics of the NANDA International nursing diagnoses, activity intolerance, decreased cardiac output and excess fluid volume, and the concomitant presence of those diagnoses in patients with decompensated heart failure. Content validity of the operational definitions for the defining characteristics of activity intolerance, excess fluid volume and decreased cardiac output have been previously validated by experts. Their clinical usefulness requires clinical validation. This was a descriptive exploratory study. Two expert nurses independently assessed 25 patients with decompensated heart failure for the presence or absence of 29 defining characteristics. Interrater reliability was analysed using the Kappa coefficient as a measure of clinical usefulness. The Fisher's exact test was used to test the association of the defining characteristics of activity intolerance and excess fluid volume in the presence of decreased cardiac output, and the correlation between the three diagnoses. Assessments regarding the presence of all defining characteristics reached 100% agreement, except with anxiety. Five defining characteristics of excess fluid volume were significantly associated with the presence of decreased cardiac output. Concomitant presence of the three diagnoses occurred in 80% of the patients. However, there was no significant correlation between the three diagnoses. The operational definitions for the diagnoses had strong interrater reliability, therefore they were considered clinically useful. Only five defining characteristics were representative of the association between excess fluid volume and decreased cardiac output. Therefore, excess fluid volume is related to decreased cardiac output, although these diagnoses are not necessarily associated with activity intolerance. The operational definitions may favour early recognition of the sequence of responses to decompensation, guiding the choice of common interventions to improve or resolve excess fluid volume and decreased cardiac output. © 2015 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Optics Toolbox: An Intelligent Relational Database System For Optical Designers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Weller, Scott W.; Hopkins, Robert E.

1986-12-01

Optical designers were among the first to use the computer as an engineering tool. Powerful programs have been written to do ray-trace analysis, third-order layout, and optimization. However, newer computing techniques such as database management and expert systems have not been adopted by the optical design community. For the purpose of this discussion we will define a relational database system as a database which allows the user to specify his requirements using logical relations. For example, to search for all lenses in a lens database with a F/number less than two, and a half field of view near 28 degrees, you might enter the following: FNO < 2.0 and FOV of 28 degrees ± 5% Again for the purpose of this discussion, we will define an expert system as a program which contains expert knowledge, can ask intelligent questions, and can form conclusions based on the answers given and the knowledge which it contains. Most expert systems store this knowledge in the form of rules-of-thumb, which are written in an English-like language, and which are easily modified by the user. An example rule is: IF require microscope objective in air and require NA > 0.9 THEN suggest the use of an oil immersion objective The heart of the expert system is the rule interpreter, sometimes called an inference engine, which reads the rules and forms conclusions based on them. The use of a relational database system containing lens prototypes seems to be a viable prospect. However, it is not clear that expert systems have a place in optical design. In domains such as medical diagnosis and petrology, expert systems are flourishing. These domains are quite different from optical design, however, because optical design is a creative process, and the rules are difficult to write down. We do think that an expert system is feasible in the area of first order layout, which is sufficiently diagnostic in nature to permit useful rules to be written. This first-order expert would emulate an expert designer as he interacted with a customer for the first time: asking the right questions, forming conclusions, and making suggestions. With these objectives in mind, we have developed the Optics Toolbox. Optics Toolbox is actually two programs in one: it is a powerful relational database system with twenty-one search parameters, four search modes, and multi-database support, as well as a first-order optical design expert system with a rule interpreter which has full access to the relational database. The system schematic is shown in Figure 1.

Development of a knowledge acquisition tool for an expert system flight status monitor

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Disbrow, J. D.; Duke, E. L.; Regenie, V. A.

1986-01-01

Two of the main issues in artificial intelligence today are knowledge acquisition dion and knowledge representation. The Dryden Flight Research Facility of NASA's Ames Research Center is presently involved in the design and implementation of an expert system flight status monitor that will provide expertise and knowledge to aid the flight systems engineer in monitoring today's advanced high-performance aircraft. The flight status monitor can be divided into two sections: the expert system itself and the knowledge acquisition tool. The knowledge acquisition tool, the means it uses to extract knowledge from the domain expert, and how that knowledge is represented for computer use is discussed. An actual aircraft system has been codified by this tool with great success. Future real-time use of the expert system has been facilitated by using the knowledge acquisition tool to easily generate a logically consistent and complete knowledge base.

Development of a knowledge acquisition tool for an expert system flight status monitor

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Disbrow, J. D.; Duke, E. L.; Regenie, V. A.

1986-01-01

Two of the main issues in artificial intelligence today are knowledge acquisition and knowledge representation. The Dryden Flight Research Facility of NASA's Ames Research Center is presently involved in the design and implementation of an expert system flight status monitor that will provide expertise and knowledge to aid the flight systems engineer in monitoring today's advanced high-performance aircraft. The flight status monitor can be divided into two sections: the expert system itself and the knowledge acquisition tool. This paper discusses the knowledge acquisition tool, the means it uses to extract knowledge from the domain expert, and how that knowledge is represented for computer use. An actual aircraft system has been codified by this tool with great success. Future real-time use of the expert system has been facilitated by using the knowledge acquisition tool to easily generate a logically consistent and complete knowledge base.

Rule groupings: A software engineering approach towards verification of expert systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Mehrotra, Mala

1991-01-01

Currently, most expert system shells do not address software engineering issues for developing or maintaining expert systems. As a result, large expert systems tend to be incomprehensible, difficult to debug or modify and almost impossible to verify or validate. Partitioning rule based systems into rule groups which reflect the underlying subdomains of the problem should enhance the comprehensibility, maintainability, and reliability of expert system software. Attempts were made to semiautomatically structure a CLIPS rule base into groups of related rules that carry the same type of information. Different distance metrics that capture relevant information from the rules for grouping are discussed. Two clustering algorithms that partition the rule base into groups of related rules are given. Two independent evaluation criteria are developed to measure the effectiveness of the grouping strategies. Results of the experiment with three sample rule bases are presented.

Use of a FORTH-based PROLOG for real-time expert systems. 1: Spacelab life sciences experiment application

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Paloski, William H.; Odette, Louis L.; Krever, Alfred J.; West, Allison K.

1987-01-01

A real-time expert system is being developed to serve as the astronaut interface for a series of Spacelab vestibular experiments. This expert system is written in a version of Prolog that is itself written in Forth. The Prolog contains a predicate that can be used to execute Forth definitions; thus, the Forth becomes an embedded real-time operating system within the Prolog programming environment. The expert system consists of a data base containing detailed operational instructions for each experiment, a rule base containing Prolog clauses used to determine the next step in an experiment sequence, and a procedure base containing Prolog goals formed from real-time routines coded in Forth. In this paper, we demonstrate and describe the techniques and considerations used to develop this real-time expert system, and we conclude that Forth-based Prolog provides a viable implementation vehicle for this and similar applications.

Expert system for controlling plant growth in a contained environment

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

May, George A. (Inventor); Lanoue, Mark Allen (Inventor); Bethel, Matthew (Inventor); Ryan, Robert E. (Inventor)

2011-01-01

In a system for optimizing crop growth, vegetation is cultivated in a contained environment, such as a greenhouse, an underground cavern or other enclosed space. Imaging equipment is positioned within or about the contained environment, to acquire spatially distributed crop growth information, and environmental sensors are provided to acquire data regarding multiple environmental conditions that can affect crop development. Illumination within the contained environment, and the addition of essential nutrients and chemicals are in turn controlled in response to data acquired by the imaging apparatus and environmental sensors, by an "expert system" which is trained to analyze and evaluate crop conditions. The expert system controls the spatial and temporal lighting pattern within the contained area, and the timing and allocation of nutrients and chemicals to achieve optimized crop development. A user can access the "expert system" remotely, to assess activity within the growth chamber, and can override the "expert system".

Expert system for controlling plant growth in a contained environment

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

May, George A. (Inventor); Lanoue, Mark Allen (Inventor); Bethel, Matthew (Inventor); Ryan, Robert E. (Inventor)

2009-01-01

In a system for optimizing crop growth, vegetation is cultivated in a contained environment, such as a greenhouse, an underground cavern or other enclosed space. Imaging equipment is positioned within or about the contained environment, to acquire spatially distributed crop growth information, and environmental sensors are provided to acquire data regarding multiple environmental conditions that can affect crop development. Illumination within the contained environment, and the addition of essential nutrients and chemicals are in turn controlled in response to data acquired by the imaging apparatus and environmental sensors, by an ''expert system'' which is trained to analyze and evaluate crop conditions. The expert system controls the spatial and temporal lighting pattern within the contained area, and the timing and allocation of nutrients and chemicals to achieve optimized crop development. A user can access the ''expert system'' remotely, to assess activity within the growth chamber, and can override the ''expert system''.

Computer Series, 82. The Application of Expert Systems in the General Chemistry Laboratory.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Settle, Frank A., Jr.

1987-01-01

Describes the construction of expert computer systems using artificial intelligence technology and commercially available software, known as an expert system shell. Provides two applications; a simple one, the identification of seven white substances, and a more complicated one involving the qualitative analysis of six metal ions. (TW)

Implementation of an Expert System for Instructional Design: Phase 2. Design Document & Technical Report.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Merrill, M. David; Li, Zhongmin

The purpose of this project was to develop a prototype expert instructional design system (ID Expert) which would demonstrate the feasibility of a consultation system for use by inexperienced instructional designers. The prototype gathers information from the designer and then makes recommendations for instructional design decisions. The output of…

Toward the efficient implementation of expert systems in Ada

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lee, S. Daniel

1990-01-01

Here, the authors describe Ada language issues encountered during the development of ART-Ada, an expert system tool for Ada deployment. ART-Ada is being used to implement several expert system applications for the Space Station Freedom and the U.S. Air Force. Additional information is given on dynamic memory allocation.

An evaluation of selected (Q)SARs/expert systems for the Prediction of Skin Sensitization Potential (WC10)

EPA Science Inventory

One of the alternative approaches to assessing skin sensitization hazard is through the use of (Q)SARs/expert systems. Here we evaluate the predictive performance of two expert systems (TIMES-SS and VEGA) and two SAR rulebases (OASIS protein binding alerts and Toxtree’s reactivit...

Using Vector and Extended Boolean Matching in an Expert System for Selecting Foster Homes.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fox, Edward A.; Winett, Sheila G.

1990-01-01

Describes FOCES (Foster Care Expert System), a prototype expert system for choosing foster care placements for children which integrates information retrieval techniques with artificial intelligence. The use of prototypes and queries in Prolog routines, extended Boolean matching, and vector correlation are explained, as well as evaluation by…

Explanation Generation in Expert Systems (A Literature Review and Implementation)

DTIC Science & Technology

1989-01-01

Rubinoff. Explaining concepts in expert systems: The clear system. In Proceedings of the Second Conference on Aritificial Intelligence Applications. pages... intelligent computer software systems are Heedled. The Expert System (ES) technology of Artificial Intelligence (Al) is ore solution that is (nerging to...Random House College Dictionary defines explanation as: "to make plain, clear, or intelligible something that is not known or understood". [33] While

Users manual for an expert system (HSPEXP) for calibration of the hydrological simulation program; Fortran

USGS Publications Warehouse

Lumb, A.M.; McCammon, R.B.; Kittle, J.L.

1994-01-01

Expert system software was developed to assist less experienced modelers with calibration of a watershed model and to facilitate the interaction between the modeler and the modeling process not provided by mathematical optimization. A prototype was developed with artificial intelligence software tools, a knowledge engineer, and two domain experts. The manual procedures used by the domain experts were identified and the prototype was then coded by the knowledge engineer. The expert system consists of a set of hierarchical rules designed to guide the calibration of the model through a systematic evaluation of model parameters. When the prototype was completed and tested, it was rewritten for portability and operational use and was named HSPEXP. The watershed model Hydrological Simulation Program--Fortran (HSPF) is used in the expert system. This report is the users manual for HSPEXP and contains a discussion of the concepts and detailed steps and examples for using the software. The system has been tested on watersheds in the States of Washington and Maryland, and the system correctly identified the model parameters to be adjusted and the adjustments led to improved calibration.

Expert system application education project

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gonzelez, Avelino J.; Ragusa, James M.

1988-01-01

Artificial intelligence (AI) technology, and in particular expert systems, has shown potential applicability in many areas of operation at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC). In an era of limited resources, the early identification of good expert system applications, and their segregation from inappropriate ones can result in a more efficient use of available NASA resources. On the other hand, the education of students in a highly technical area such as AI requires an extensive hands-on effort. The nature of expert systems is such that proper sample applications for the educational process are difficult to find. A pilot project between NASA-KSC and the University of Central Florida which was designed to simultaneously address the needs of both institutions at a minimum cost. This project, referred to as Expert Systems Prototype Training Project (ESPTP), provided NASA with relatively inexpensive development of initial prototype versions of certain applications. University students likewise benefit by having expertise on a non-trivial problem accessible to them at no cost. Such expertise is indispensible in a hands-on training approach to developing expert systems.

Computer Based Expert Systems.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Parry, James D.; Ferrara, Joseph M.

1985-01-01

Claims knowledge-based expert computer systems can meet needs of rural schools for affordable expert advice and support and will play an important role in the future of rural education. Describes potential applications in prediction, interpretation, diagnosis, remediation, planning, monitoring, and instruction. (NEC)

Use of the self-organising map network (SOMNet) as a decision support system for regional mental health planning.

PubMed

Chung, Younjin; Salvador-Carulla, Luis; Salinas-Pérez, José A; Uriarte-Uriarte, Jose J; Iruin-Sanz, Alvaro; García-Alonso, Carlos R

2018-04-25

Decision-making in mental health systems should be supported by the evidence-informed knowledge transfer of data. Since mental health systems are inherently complex, involving interactions between its structures, processes and outcomes, decision support systems (DSS) need to be developed using advanced computational methods and visual tools to allow full system analysis, whilst incorporating domain experts in the analysis process. In this study, we use a DSS model developed for interactive data mining and domain expert collaboration in the analysis of complex mental health systems to improve system knowledge and evidence-informed policy planning. We combine an interactive visual data mining approach, the self-organising map network (SOMNet), with an operational expert knowledge approach, expert-based collaborative analysis (EbCA), to develop a DSS model. The SOMNet was applied to the analysis of healthcare patterns and indicators of three different regional mental health systems in Spain, comprising 106 small catchment areas and providing healthcare for over 9 million inhabitants. Based on the EbCA, the domain experts in the development team guided and evaluated the analytical processes and results. Another group of 13 domain experts in mental health systems planning and research evaluated the model based on the analytical information of the SOMNet approach for processing information and discovering knowledge in a real-world context. Through the evaluation, the domain experts assessed the feasibility and technology readiness level (TRL) of the DSS model. The SOMNet, combined with the EbCA, effectively processed evidence-based information when analysing system outliers, explaining global and local patterns, and refining key performance indicators with their analytical interpretations. The evaluation results showed that the DSS model was feasible by the domain experts and reached level 7 of the TRL (system prototype demonstration in operational environment). This study supports the benefits of combining health systems engineering (SOMNet) and expert knowledge (EbCA) to analyse the complexity of health systems research. The use of the SOMNet approach contributes to the demonstration of DSS for mental health planning in practice.

Matrix Failure Modes and Effects Analysis as a Knowledge Base for a Real Time Automated Diagnosis Expert System

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Herrin, Stephanie; Iverson, David; Spukovska, Lilly; Souza, Kenneth A. (Technical Monitor)

1994-01-01

Failure Modes and Effects Analysis contain a wealth of information that can be used to create the knowledge base required for building automated diagnostic Expert systems. A real time monitoring and diagnosis expert system based on an actual NASA project's matrix failure modes and effects analysis was developed. This Expert system Was developed at NASA Ames Research Center. This system was first used as a case study to monitor the Research Animal Holding Facility (RAHF), a Space Shuttle payload that is used to house and monitor animals in orbit so the effects of space flight and microgravity can be studied. The techniques developed for the RAHF monitoring and diagnosis Expert system are general enough to be used for monitoring and diagnosis of a variety of other systems that undergo a Matrix FMEA. This automated diagnosis system was successfully used on-line and validated on the Space Shuttle flight STS-58, mission SLS-2 in October 1993.

The Montreux definition of neonatal ARDS: biological and clinical background behind the description of a new entity.

PubMed

De Luca, Daniele; van Kaam, Anton H; Tingay, David G; Courtney, Sherry E; Danhaive, Olivier; Carnielli, Virgilio P; Zimmermann, Luc J; Kneyber, Martin C J; Tissieres, Pierre; Brierley, Joe; Conti, Giorgio; Pillow, Jane J; Rimensberger, Peter C

2017-08-01

Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) is undefined in neonates, despite the long-standing existing formal recognition of ARDS syndrome in later life. We describe the Neonatal ARDS Project: an international, collaborative, multicentre, and multidisciplinary project which aimed to produce an ARDS consensus definition for neonates that is applicable from the perinatal period. The definition was created through discussions between five expert members of the European Society for Paediatric and Neonatal Intensive Care; four experts of the European Society for Paediatric Research; two independent experts from the USA and two from Australia. This Position Paper provides the first consensus definition for neonatal ARDS (called the Montreux definition). We also provide expert consensus that mechanisms causing ARDS in adults and older children-namely complex surfactant dysfunction, lung tissue inflammation, loss of lung volume, increased shunt, and diffuse alveolar damage-are also present in several critical neonatal respiratory disorders. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Communications and tracking expert systems study

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Leibfried, T. F.; Feagin, Terry; Overland, David

1987-01-01

The original objectives of the study consisted of five broad areas of investigation: criteria and issues for explanation of communication and tracking system anomaly detection, isolation, and recovery; data storage simplification issues for fault detection expert systems; data selection procedures for decision tree pruning and optimization to enhance the abstraction of pertinent information for clear explanation; criteria for establishing levels of explanation suited to needs; and analysis of expert system interaction and modularization. Progress was made in all areas, but to a lesser extent in the criteria for establishing levels of explanation suited to needs. Among the types of expert systems studied were those related to anomaly or fault detection, isolation, and recovery.

PCLIPS

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Krolak, Patrick D.

1990-01-01

CLIPS is an expert system, created specifically to allow rapid implementation of an expert system. CLIPS is written in C, and thus needs a very small amount of memory to run. Parallel CLIPS (PCLIPS) is an extension to CLIPS which is intended to be used in situations where a group of expert systems are expected to run simultaneously and occasionally communicate with each other on an integrated network. PCLIPS is a coarse-grained data distribution system. Its main goal is to take information in one knowledge base and distribute it to other knowledge bases so that all the executing expert systems are able to use that knowledge to solve their disparate problems.

Using graphics and expert system technologies to support satellite monitoring at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hughes, Peter M.; Shirah, Gregory W.; Luczak, Edward C.

1994-01-01

At NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, fault-isolation expert systems have been developed to support data monitoring and fault detection tasks in satellite control centers. Based on the lessons learned during these efforts in expert system automation, a new domain-specific expert system development tool named the Generic Spacecraft Analysts Assistant (GenSAA), was developed to facilitate the rapid development and reuse of real-time expert systems to serve as fault-isolation assistants for spacecraft analysts. This paper describes GenSAA's capabilities and how it is supporting monitoring functions of current and future NASA missions for a variety of satellite monitoring applications ranging from subsystem health and safety to spacecraft attitude. Finally, this paper addresses efforts to generalize GenSAA's data interface for more widespread usage throughout the space and commercial industry.

Expert system verification concerns in an operations environment

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Goodwin, Mary Ann; Robertson, Charles C.

1987-01-01

The Space Shuttle community is currently developing a number of knowledge-based tools, primarily expert systems, to support Space Shuttle operations. It is proposed that anticipating and responding to the requirements of the operations environment will contribute to a rapid and smooth transition of expert systems from development to operations, and that the requirements for verification are critical to this transition. The paper identifies the requirements of expert systems to be used for flight planning and support and compares them to those of existing procedural software used for flight planning and support. It then explores software engineering concepts and methodology that can be used to satisfy these requirements, to aid the transition from development to operations and to support the operations environment during the lifetime of expert systems. Many of these are similar to those used for procedural hardware.

Development of an expert system prototype for determining software functional requirements for command management activities at NASA Goddard

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Liebowitz, J.

1985-01-01

The development of an expert system prototype for determining software functional requirements for NASA Goddard's Command Management System (CMS) is described. The role of the CMS is to transform general requests into specific spacecraft commands with command execution conditions. The CMS is part of the NASA Data System which entails the downlink of science and engineering data from NASA near-earth satellites to the user, and the uplink of command and control data to the spacecraft. Subjects covered include: the problem environment of determining CMS software functional requirements; the expert system approach for handling CMS requirements development; validation and evaluation procedures for the expert system.

Intelligent system for topic survey in MEDLINE by keyword recommendation and learning text characteristics.

PubMed

Tanaka, M; Nakazono, S; Matsuno, H; Tsujimoto, H; Kitamura, Y; Miyano, S

2000-01-01

We have implemented a system for assisting experts in selecting MEDLINE records for database construction purposes. This system has two specific features: The first is a learning mechanism which extracts characteristics in the abstracts of MEDLINE records of interest as patterns. These patterns reflect selection decisions by experts and are used for screening the records. The second is a keyword recommendation system which assists and supplements experts' knowledge in unexpected cases. Combined with a conventional keyword-based information retrieval system, this system may provide an efficient and comfortable environment for MEDLINE record selection by experts. Some computational experiments are provided to prove that this idea is useful.

An expert system/ion trap mass spectrometry approach for life support systems monitoring

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Palmer, Peter T.; Wong, Carla M.; Yost, Richard A.; Johnson, Jodie V.; Yates, Nathan A.; Story, Michael

1992-01-01

Efforts to develop sensor and control system technology to monitor air quality for life support have resulted in the development and preliminary testing of a concept based on expert systems and ion trap mass spectrometry (ITMS). An ITMS instrument provides the capability to identify and quantitate a large number of suspected contaminants at trace levels through the use of a variety of multidimensional experiments. An expert system provides specialized knowledge for control, analysis, and decision making. The system is intended for real-time, on-line, autonomous monitoring of air quality. The key characteristics of the system, performance data and analytical capabilities of the ITMS instrument, the design and operation of the expert system, and results from preliminary testing of the system for trace contaminant monitoring are described.

Association between volume and momentum of online searches and real-world collective unrest

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Qi, Hong; Manrique, Pedro; Johnson, Daniela; Restrepo, Elvira; Johnson, Neil F.

A fundamental idea from physics is that macroscopic transitions can occur as a result of an escalation in the correlated activity of a many-body system's constituent particles. Here we apply this idea in an interdisciplinary setting, whereby the particles are individuals, their correlated activity involves online search activity surrounding the topics of social unrest, and the macroscopic phenomenon being measured are real-world protests. Our empirical study covers countries in Latin America during 2011-2014 using datasets assembled from multiple sources by subject matter experts. We find specifically that the volume and momentum of searches on Google Trends surrounding mass protest language, can detect - and may even pre-empt - the macroscopic on-street activity. Not only can this simple open-source solution prove an invaluable aid for monitoring civil order, our study serves to strengthen the increasing literature in the physics community aimed at understanding the collective dynamics of interacting populations of living objects across the life sciences.

Plexiform neurofibroma tissue classification

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Weizman, L.; Hoch, L.; Ben Sira, L.; Joskowicz, L.; Pratt, L.; Constantini, S.; Ben Bashat, D.

2011-03-01

Plexiform Neurofibroma (PN) is a major complication of NeuroFibromatosis-1 (NF1), a common genetic disease that involving the nervous system. PNs are peripheral nerve sheath tumors extending along the length of the nerve in various parts of the body. Treatment decision is based on tumor volume assessment using MRI, which is currently time consuming and error prone, with limited semi-automatic segmentation support. We present in this paper a new method for the segmentation and tumor mass quantification of PN from STIR MRI scans. The method starts with a user-based delineation of the tumor area in a single slice and automatically detects the PN lesions in the entire image based on the tumor connectivity. Experimental results on seven datasets yield a mean volume overlap difference of 25% as compared to manual segmentation by expert radiologist with a mean computation and interaction time of 12 minutes vs. over an hour for manual annotation. Since the user interaction in the segmentation process is minimal, our method has the potential to successfully become part of the clinical workflow.

International conference on the role of the polar regions in global change: Proceedings. Volume 2

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Weller, G.; Wilson, C.L.; Severin, B.A.B.

1991-12-01

The International Conference on the Role of the Polar Regions in Global Change took place on the campus of the University of Alaska Fairbanks on June 11--15, 1990. The goal of the conference was to define and summarize the state of knowledge on the role of the polar regions in global change, and to identify gaps in knowledge. To this purpose experts in a wide variety of relevant disciplines were invited to present papers and hold panel discussions. While there are numerous conferences on global change, this conference dealt specifically with the polar regions which occupy key positions in themore » global system. These two volumes of conference proceedings include papers on (1) detection and monitoring of change; (2) climate variability and climate forcing; (3) ocean, sea ice, and atmosphere interactions and processes; and (4) effects on biota and biological feedbacks; (5) ice sheet, glacier and permafrost responses and feedbacks, (6) paleoenvironmental studies; and, (7) aerosol and trace gases.« less

Real-time diagnostics for a reusable rocket engine

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Guo, T. H.; Merrill, W.; Duyar, A.

1992-01-01

A hierarchical, decentralized diagnostic system is proposed for the Real-Time Diagnostic System component of the Intelligent Control System (ICS) for reusable rocket engines. The proposed diagnostic system has three layers of information processing: condition monitoring, fault mode detection, and expert system diagnostics. The condition monitoring layer is the first level of signal processing. Here, important features of the sensor data are extracted. These processed data are then used by the higher level fault mode detection layer to do preliminary diagnosis on potential faults at the component level. Because of the closely coupled nature of the rocket engine propulsion system components, it is expected that a given engine condition may trigger more than one fault mode detector. Expert knowledge is needed to resolve the conflicting reports from the various failure mode detectors. This is the function of the diagnostic expert layer. Here, the heuristic nature of this decision process makes it desirable to use an expert system approach. Implementation of the real-time diagnostic system described above requires a wide spectrum of information processing capability. Generally, in the condition monitoring layer, fast data processing is often needed for feature extraction and signal conditioning. This is usually followed by some detection logic to determine the selected faults on the component level. Three different techniques are used to attack different fault detection problems in the NASA LeRC ICS testbed simulation. The first technique employed is the neural network application for real-time sensor validation which includes failure detection, isolation, and accommodation. The second approach demonstrated is the model-based fault diagnosis system using on-line parameter identification. Besides these model based diagnostic schemes, there are still many failure modes which need to be diagnosed by the heuristic expert knowledge. The heuristic expert knowledge is implemented using a real-time expert system tool called G2 by Gensym Corp. Finally, the distributed diagnostic system requires another level of intelligence to oversee the fault mode reports generated by component fault detectors. The decision making at this level can best be done using a rule-based expert system. This level of expert knowledge is also implemented using G2.

Expert system for skin problem consultation in Thai traditional medicine.

PubMed

Nopparatkiat, Pornchai; na Nagara, Byaporn; Chansa-ngavej, Chuvej

2014-01-01

This paper aimed to demonstrate the research and development of a rule-based expert system for skin problem consulting in the areas of acne, melasma, freckle, wrinkle, and uneven skin tone, with recommended treatments from Thai traditional medicine knowledge. The tool selected for developing the expert system is a software program written in the PHP language. MySQL database is used to work together with PHP for building database of the expert system. The system is web-based and can be reached from anywhere with Internet access. The developed expert system gave recommendations on the skin problem treatment with Thai herbal recipes and Thai herbal cosmetics based on 416 rules derived from primary and secondary sources. The system had been tested by 50 users consisting of dermatologists, Thai traditional medicine doctors, and general users. The developed system was considered good for learning and consultation. The present work showed how such a scattered body of traditional knowledge as Thai traditional medicine and herbal recipes could be collected, organised and made accessible to users and interested parties. The expert system developed herein should contribute in a meaningful way towards preserving the knowledge and helping promote the use of Thai traditional medicine as a practical alternative medicine for the treatment of illnesses.

Computer-based diagnostic expert systems in rheumatology: where do we stand in 2014?

PubMed

Alder, Hannes; Michel, Beat A; Marx, Christian; Tamborrini, Giorgio; Langenegger, Thomas; Bruehlmann, Pius; Steurer, Johann; Wildi, Lukas M

2014-01-01

Background. The early detection of rheumatic diseases and the treatment to target have become of utmost importance to control the disease and improve its prognosis. However, establishing a diagnosis in early stages is challenging as many diseases initially present with similar symptoms and signs. Expert systems are computer programs designed to support the human decision making and have been developed in almost every field of medicine. Methods. This review focuses on the developments in the field of rheumatology to give a comprehensive insight. Medline, Embase, and Cochrane Library were searched. Results. Reports of 25 expert systems with different design and field of application were found. The performance of 19 of the identified expert systems was evaluated. The proportion of correctly diagnosed cases was between 43.1 and 99.9%. Sensitivity and specificity ranged from 62 to 100 and 88 to 98%, respectively. Conclusions. Promising diagnostic expert systems with moderate to excellent performance were identified. The validation process was in general underappreciated. None of the systems, however, seemed to have succeeded in daily practice. This review identifies optimal characteristics to increase the survival rate of expert systems and may serve as valuable information for future developments in the field.

Design of an expert system for the development and formulation of push-pull osmotic pump tablets containing poorly water-soluble drugs.

PubMed

Zhang, Zhi-hong; Dong, Hong-ye; Peng, Bo; Liu, Hong-fei; Li, Chun-lei; Liang, Min; Pan, Wei-san

2011-05-30

The purpose of this article was to build an expert system for the development and formulation of push-pull osmotic pump tablets (PPOP). Hundreds of PPOP formulations were studied according to different poorly water-soluble drugs and pharmaceutical acceptable excipients. The knowledge base including database and rule base was built based on the reported results of hundreds of PPOP formulations containing different poorly water-soluble drugs and pharmaceutical excipients and the experiences available from other researchers. The prediction model of release behavior was built using back propagation (BP) neural network, which is good at nonlinear mapping and learning function. Formulation design model was established based on the prediction model of release behavior, which was the nucleus of the inference engine. Finally, the expert system program was constructed by VB.NET associating with SQL Server. Expert system is one of the most popular aspects in artificial intelligence. To date there is no expert system available for the formulation of controlled release dosage forms yet. Moreover, osmotic pump technology (OPT) is gradually getting consummate all over the world. It is meaningful to apply expert system on OPT. Famotidine, a water insoluble drug was chosen as the model drug to validate the applicability of the developed expert system. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Systematic methods for knowledge acquisition and expert system development

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Belkin, Brenda L.; Stengel, Robert F.

1991-01-01

Nine cooperating rule-based systems, collectively called AUTOCREW, were designed to automate functions and decisions associated with a combat aircraft's subsystem. The organization of tasks within each system is described; performance metrics were developed to evaluate the workload of each rule base, and to assess the cooperation between the rule-bases. Each AUTOCREW subsystem is composed of several expert systems that perform specific tasks. AUTOCREW's NAVIGATOR was analyzed in detail to understand the difficulties involved in designing the system and to identify tools and methodologies that ease development. The NAVIGATOR determines optimal navigation strategies from a set of available sensors. A Navigation Sensor Management (NSM) expert system was systematically designed from Kalman filter covariance data; four ground-based, a satellite-based, and two on-board INS-aiding sensors were modeled and simulated to aid an INS. The NSM Expert was developed using the Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and the ID3 algorithm. Navigation strategy selection is based on an RSS position error decision metric, which is computed from the covariance data. Results show that the NSM Expert predicts position error correctly between 45 and 100 percent of the time for a specified navaid configuration and aircraft trajectory. The NSM Expert adapts to new situations, and provides reasonable estimates of hybrid performance. The systematic nature of the ANOVA/ID3 method makes it broadly applicable to expert system design when experimental or simulation data is available.

Expert training with standardized operative technique helps establish a successful penile prosthetics program for urologic resident education.

PubMed

King, Ashley B; Klausner, Adam P; Johnson, Corey M; Moore, Blake W; Wilson, Steven K; Grob, B Mayer

2011-10-01

The challenge of resident education in urologic surgery programs is to overcome disparity imparted by diverse patient populations, limited training times, and inequalities in the availability of expert surgical educators. Specifically, in the area of prosthetic urology, only a small proportion of programs have full-time faculty available to train residents in this discipline. To examine whether a new model using yearly training sessions from a recognized expert can establish a successful penile prosthetics program and result in better outcomes, higher case volumes, and willingness to perform more complex surgeries. A recognized expert conducted one to two operative training sessions yearly to teach standardized technique for penile prosthetics to residents. Each session consisted of three to four operative cases performed under the direct supervision of the expert. Retrospective data were collected from all penile prosthetic operations before (February, 2000 to June, 2004: N = 44) and after (July, 2004 to October, 2007: N = 79) implementation of these sessions. Outcomes reviewed included patient age, race, medical comorbidities, operative time, estimated blood loss, type of prosthesis, operative approach, drain usage, length of stay, and complications including revision/explantation rates. Statistical analysis was performed using Student's t-tests, Fisher's tests, and survival curves using the Kaplan-Meier technique (P value ≤ 0.05 to define statistical significance). Patient characteristics were not significantly different pre- vs. post-training. Operative time and estimated blood loss significantly decreased. Inflatable implants increased from 19/44 (43.2%, pre-training) to 69/79 (87.3%, post-training) (P < 0.01). Operations per year increased from 9.96 (pre-training) to 24 (post-training) (P < 0.01). Revision/explantation occurred in 11/44 patients (25%, pre-training) vs. 7/79 (8.9%, post-training) (P < 0.05). These data demonstrate that yearly sessions with a recognized expert can improve surgical outcomes, type, and volume of implants and can reduce explantation/revision rates. This represents an excellent model for improved training of urologic residents in penile prosthetics surgery. © 2011 International Society for Sexual Medicine.

Automobile driver on-road performance test. Volume 1, final report

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

1981-09-30

The Automobile Driver On-Road Performance Test (ADOPT) was developed during a three-phase project. In Phase 1, 51 candidate behaviors were identified and selected with the help of experts in the fields of traffic safety, measurement of driver perform...

Wilderness Medicine Newsletter, Volume 8.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Weber, Holly A., Ed.

1997-01-01

This document consists of the six issues of the "Wilderness Medicine Newsletter" published during 1997. The newsletter provides medical and rescue information for the non-physician in remote wilderness areas. Issues typically include feature articles, conference and training courses schedules, an "Ask the Expert" column, and…

A Wireless Sensor Network-Based Portable Vehicle Detector Evaluation System

PubMed Central

Yoo, Seong-eun

2013-01-01

In an upcoming smart transportation environment, performance evaluations of existing Vehicle Detection Systems are crucial to maintain their accuracy. The existing evaluation method for Vehicle Detection Systems is based on a wired Vehicle Detection System reference and a video recorder, which must be operated and analyzed by capable traffic experts. However, this conventional evaluation system has many disadvantages. It is inconvenient to deploy, the evaluation takes a long time, and it lacks scalability and objectivity. To improve the evaluation procedure, this paper proposes a Portable Vehicle Detector Evaluation System based on wireless sensor networks. We describe both the architecture and design of a Vehicle Detector Evaluation System and the implementation results, focusing on the wireless sensor networks and methods for traffic information measurement. With the help of wireless sensor networks and automated analysis, our Vehicle Detector Evaluation System can evaluate a Vehicle Detection System conveniently and objectively. The extensive evaluations of our Vehicle Detector Evaluation System show that it can measure the traffic information such as volume counts and speed with over 98% accuracy. PMID:23344388

A wireless sensor network-based portable vehicle detector evaluation system.

PubMed

Yoo, Seong-eun

2013-01-17

In an upcoming smart transportation environment, performance evaluations of existing Vehicle Detection Systems are crucial to maintain their accuracy. The existing evaluation method for Vehicle Detection Systems is based on a wired Vehicle Detection System reference and a video recorder, which must be operated and analyzed by capable traffic experts. However, this conventional evaluation system has many disadvantages. It is inconvenient to deploy, the evaluation takes a long time, and it lacks scalability and objectivity. To improve the evaluation procedure, this paper proposes a Portable Vehicle Detector Evaluation System based on wireless sensor networks. We describe both the architecture and design of a Vehicle Detector Evaluation System and the implementation results, focusing on the wireless sensor networks and methods for traffic information measurement. With the help of wireless sensor networks and automated analysis, our Vehicle Detector Evaluation System can evaluate a Vehicle Detection System conveniently and objectively. The extensive evaluations of our Vehicle Detector Evaluation System show that it can measure the traffic information such as volume counts and speed with over 98% accuracy.

Preliminary Design of a Consultation Knowledge-Based System for the Minimization of Distortion in Welded Structures

DTIC Science & Technology

1989-02-01

which capture the knowledge of such experts. These Expert Systems, or Knowledge-Based Systems’, differ from the usual computer programming techniques...their applications in the fields of structural design and welding is reviewed. 5.1 Introduction Expert Systems, or KBES, are computer programs using Al...procedurally constructed as conventional computer programs usually are; * The knowledge base of such systems is executable, unlike databases 3 "Ill

A Qualitative Approach to the Evaluation of Expert Systems Shells.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Slawson, Dean A.; And Others

This study explores an approach to the evaluation of expert system shells using case studies. The methodology and some of the results of an evaluation of the prototype development of an expert system using the shell "M1" are detailed, including a description of the participants and the project, the data collection process and materials,…

Multiple neural network approaches to clinical expert systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Stubbs, Derek F.

1990-08-01

We briefly review the concept of computer aided medical diagnosis and more extensively review the the existing literature on neural network applications in the field. Neural networks can function as simple expert systems for diagnosis or prognosis. Using a public database we develop a neural network for the diagnosis of a major presenting symptom while discussing the development process and possible approaches. MEDICAL EXPERTS SYSTEMS COMPUTER AIDED DIAGNOSIS Biomedicine is an incredibly diverse and multidisciplinary field and it is not surprising that neural networks with their many applications are finding more and more applications in the highly non-linear field of biomedicine. I want to concentrate on neural networks as medical expert systems for clinical diagnosis or prognosis. Expert Systems started out as a set of computerized " ifthen" rules. Everything was reduced to boolean logic and the promised land of computer experts was said to be in sight. It never came. Why? First the computer code explodes as the number of " ifs" increases. All the " ifs" have to interact. Second experts are not very good at reducing expertise to language. It turns out that experts recognize patterns and have non-verbal left-brain intuition decision processes. Third learning by example rather than learning by rule is the way natural brains works and making computers work by rule-learning is hideously labor intensive. Neural networks can learn from example. They learn the results

Guidance, navigation, and control subsystem equipment selection algorithm using expert system methods

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Allen, Cheryl L.

1991-01-01

Enhanced engineering tools can be obtained through the integration of expert system methodologies and existing design software. The application of these methodologies to the spacecraft design and cost model (SDCM) software provides an improved technique for the selection of hardware for unmanned spacecraft subsystem design. The knowledge engineering system (KES) expert system development tool was used to implement a smarter equipment section algorithm than that which is currently achievable through the use of a standard data base system. The guidance, navigation, and control subsystems of the SDCM software was chosen as the initial subsystem for implementation. The portions of the SDCM code which compute the selection criteria and constraints remain intact, and the expert system equipment selection algorithm is embedded within this existing code. The architecture of this new methodology is described and its implementation is reported. The project background and a brief overview of the expert system is described, and once the details of the design are characterized, an example of its implementation is demonstrated.

Distributed systems status and control

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kreidler, David; Vickers, David

1990-01-01

Concepts are investigated for an automated status and control system for a distributed processing environment. System characteristics, data requirements for health assessment, data acquisition methods, system diagnosis methods and control methods were investigated in an attempt to determine the high-level requirements for a system which can be used to assess the health of a distributed processing system and implement control procedures to maintain an accepted level of health for the system. A potential concept for automated status and control includes the use of expert system techniques to assess the health of the system, detect and diagnose faults, and initiate or recommend actions to correct the faults. Therefore, this research included the investigation of methods by which expert systems were developed for real-time environments and distributed systems. The focus is on the features required by real-time expert systems and the tools available to develop real-time expert systems.

A precise and accurate acupoint location obtained on the face using consistency matrix pointwise fusion method.

PubMed

Yanq, Xuming; Ye, Yijun; Xia, Yong; Wei, Xuanzhong; Wang, Zheyu; Ni, Hongmei; Zhu, Ying; Xu, Lingyu

2015-02-01

To develop a more precise and accurate method, and identified a procedure to measure whether an acupoint had been correctly located. On the face, we used an acupoint location from different acupuncture experts and obtained the most precise and accurate values of acupoint location based on the consistency information fusion algorithm, through a virtual simulation of the facial orientation coordinate system. Because of inconsistencies in each acupuncture expert's original data, the system error the general weight calculation. First, we corrected each expert of acupoint location system error itself, to obtain a rational quantification for each expert of acupuncture and moxibustion acupoint location consistent support degree, to obtain pointwise variable precision fusion results, to put every expert's acupuncture acupoint location fusion error enhanced to pointwise variable precision. Then, we more effectively used the measured characteristics of different acupuncture expert's acupoint location, to improve the measurement information utilization efficiency and acupuncture acupoint location precision and accuracy. Based on using the consistency matrix pointwise fusion method on the acupuncture experts' acupoint location values, each expert's acupoint location information could be calculated, and the most precise and accurate values of each expert's acupoint location could be obtained.

Spacelab data processing facility (SLDPF) quality assurance (QA)/data accounting (DA) expert systems - Transition from prototypes to operational systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Basile, Lisa

1988-01-01

The SLDPF is responsible for the capture, quality monitoring processing, accounting, and shipment of Spacelab and/or Attached Shuttle Payloads (ASP) telemetry data to various user facilities. Expert systems will aid in the performance of the quality assurance and data accounting functions of the two SLDPF functional elements: the Spacelab Input Processing System (SIPS) and the Spacelab Output Processing System (SOPS). Prototypes were developed for each as independent efforts. The SIPS Knowledge System Prototype (KSP) used the commercial shell OPS5+ on an IBM PC/AT; the SOPS Expert System Prototype used the expert system shell CLIPS implemented on a Macintosh personal computer. Both prototypes emulate the duties of the respective QA/DA analysts based upon analyst input and predetermined mission criteria parameters, and recommended instructions and decisions governing the reprocessing, release, or holding for further analysis of data. These prototypes demonstrated feasibility and high potential for operational systems. Increase in productivity, decrease of tedium, consistency, concise historical records, and a training tool for new analyses were the principal advantages. An operational configuration, taking advantage of the SLDPF network capabilities, is under development with the expert systems being installed on SUN workstations. This new configuration in conjunction with the potential of the expert systems will enhance the efficiency, in both time and quality, of the SLDPF's release of Spacelab/AST data products.

Spacelab data processing facility (SLDPF) Quality Assurance (QA)/Data Accounting (DA) expert systems: Transition from prototypes to operational systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Basile, Lisa

1988-01-01

The SLDPF is responsible for the capture, quality monitoring processing, accounting, and shipment of Spacelab and/or Attached Shuttle Payloads (ASP) telemetry data to various user facilities. Expert systems will aid in the performance of the quality assurance and data accounting functions of the two SLDPF functional elements: the Spacelab Input Processing System (SIPS) and the Spacelab Output Processing System (SOPS). Prototypes were developed for each as independent efforts. The SIPS Knowledge System Prototype (KSP) used the commercial shell OPS5+ on an IBM PC/AT; the SOPS Expert System Prototype used the expert system shell CLIPS implemented on a Macintosh personal computer. Both prototypes emulate the duties of the respective QA/DA analysts based upon analyst input and predetermined mission criteria parameters, and recommended instructions and decisions governing the reprocessing, release, or holding for further analysis of data. These prototypes demonstrated feasibility and high potential for operational systems. Increase in productivity, decrease of tedium, consistency, concise historial records, and a training tool for new analyses were the principal advantages. An operational configuration, taking advantage of the SLDPF network capabilities, is under development with the expert systems being installed on SUN workstations. This new configuration in conjunction with the potential of the expert systems will enhance the efficiency, in both time and quality, of the SLDPF's release of Spacelab/AST data products.

Measuring the apparent diffusion coefficient in primary rectal tumors: is there a benefit in performing histogram analyses?

PubMed

van Heeswijk, Miriam M; Lambregts, Doenja M J; Maas, Monique; Lahaye, Max J; Ayas, Z; Slenter, Jos M G M; Beets, Geerard L; Bakers, Frans C H; Beets-Tan, Regina G H

2017-06-01

The apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) is a potential prognostic imaging marker in rectal cancer. Typically, mean ADC values are used, derived from precise manual whole-volume tumor delineations by experts. The aim was first to explore whether non-precise circular delineation combined with histogram analysis can be a less cumbersome alternative to acquire similar ADC measurements and second to explore whether histogram analyses provide additional prognostic information. Thirty-seven patients who underwent a primary staging MRI including diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI; b0, 25, 50, 100, 500, 1000; 1.5 T) were included. Volumes-of-interest (VOIs) were drawn on b1000-DWI: (a) precise delineation, manually tracing tumor boundaries (2 expert readers), and (b) non-precise delineation, drawing circular VOIs with a wide margin around the tumor (2 non-experts). Mean ADC and histogram metrics (mean, min, max, median, SD, skewness, kurtosis, 5th-95th percentiles) were derived from the VOIs and delineation time was recorded. Measurements were compared between the two methods and correlated with prognostic outcome parameters. Median delineation time reduced from 47-165 s (precise) to 21-43 s (non-precise). The 45th percentile of the non-precise delineation showed the best correlation with the mean ADC from the precise delineation as the reference standard (ICC 0.71-0.75). None of the mean ADC or histogram parameters showed significant prognostic value; only the total tumor volume (VOI) was significantly larger in patients with positive clinical N stage and mesorectal fascia involvement. When performing non-precise tumor delineation, histogram analysis (in specific 45th ADC percentile) may be used as an alternative to obtain similar ADC values as with precise whole tumor delineation. Histogram analyses are not beneficial to obtain additional prognostic information.

Optimisation of nano-silica modified self-compacting high-Volume fly ash mortar

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Achara, Bitrus Emmanuel; Mohammed, Bashar S.; Fadhil Nuruddin, Muhd

2017-05-01

Evaluation of the effects of nano-silica amount and superplasticizer (SP) dosage on the compressive strength, porosity and slump flow on high-volume fly ash self-consolidating mortar was investigated. Multiobjective optimisation technique using Design-Expert software was applied to obtain solution based on desirability function that simultaneously optimises the variables and the responses. A desirability function of 0.811 gives the optimised solution. The experimental and predicted results showed minimal errors in all the measured responses.

Developing Expert System for Tuberculosis Diagnose to Support Knowledge Sharing in the Era of National Health Insurance System

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lidya, L.

2017-03-01

National Health Insurance has been implemented since 1st January 2014. A number of new policies have been established including multilevel referral system. The multilevel referral system classified health care center into three levels, it determined that the flow of patient treatment should be started from first level health care center. There are 144 kind of diseases that must be treat in the first level which mainly consists of general physicians. Unfortunately, competence of the physician in the first level may not fulfil the standard competence yet. To improved the physisians knowledge, government has created many events to accelerate knowledge sharing. However, it still needs times and many resources to give significan results. Expert system is kind of software that provide consulting services to non-expert users in accordance with the area of its expertise. It can improved effectivity and efficiency of knowledge sharing and learning. This research was developed a model of TB diagnose expert system which comply with the standard procedure of TB diagnosis and regulation. The proposed expert system has characteristics as follows provide facility to manage multimedia clinical data, supporting the complexity of TB diagnosis (combine rule-based and case-based expert system), interactive interface, good usability, multi-platform, evolutionary.

Development of expert system for biobased polymer material selection: food packaging application.

PubMed

Sanyang, M L; Sapuan, S M

2015-10-01

Biobased food packaging materials are gaining more attention owing to their intrinsic biodegradable nature and renewability. Selection of suitable biobased polymers for food packaging applications could be a tedious task with potential mistakes in choosing the best materials. In this paper, an expert system was developed using Exsys Corvid software to select suitable biobased polymer materials for packaging fruits, dry food and dairy products. If - Then rule based system was utilized to accomplish the material selection process whereas a score system was formulated to facilitate the ranking of selected materials. The expert system selected materials that satisfied all constraints and selection results were presented in suitability sequence depending on their scores. The expert system selected polylactic acid (PLA) as the most suitable material.

Expert assessment of the current state of the energy management system in the company

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Minnullina, Anna; Abdrazakov, Rais

2017-10-01

The authors’ expert assessment of the current state of the energy management system in the company is proposed in the article. The experts are invited to assess the status of the energy management system in the following categories: energy policy, organizational structure, training, motivation, control, communication, investment, and energy consumption culture. For the purposes of interpretation of the results of the expert evaluation obtained, a gradation based on a possible range of values is proposed. The expert evaluation allows representing the status of the energy management system in general and at each of its individual levels, which makes it possible to identify the problem areas more accurately. To confirm the applied nature of the proposed methodology, the authors assessed the opinions of 8 experts, employed by the road construction company of the Tyumen Region and related in one way or another to the process of energy consumption in the company due to the nature of their activities.

An Assessment of Artificial Intelligence and Expert Systems Technology for Application to Management of Cockpit Systems.

DTIC Science & Technology

1986-09-01

expert systems will certainly find management applications a fertile field for research and practice." Elam and Henderson (1983) also discuss concepts ...Shortliffe, E.H. (1983). Expert systems research. Science, 220, 261-268, 15 Apr. * Elam, J.J. and Henderson, J.C. (1983). Knowledge engineering concepts for...Symposium on Aerospace and Electronic Systems, Advanced Concepts and Pioneering Perspectives, Dayton, OH, Sect 4, (pp 1-9), Nov 14-15. Dreyfus, H

Artificial intelligence for geologic mapping with imaging spectrometers

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kruse, F. A.

1993-01-01

This project was a three year study at the Center for the Study of Earth from Space (CSES) within the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Science (CIRES) at the University of Colorado, Boulder. The goal of this research was to develop an expert system to allow automated identification of geologic materials based on their spectral characteristics in imaging spectrometer data such as the Airborne Visible/Infrared Imaging Spectrometer (AVIRIS). This requirement was dictated by the volume of data produced by imaging spectrometers, which prohibits manual analysis. The research described is based on the development of automated techniques for analysis of imaging spectrometer data that emulate the analytical processes used by a human observer. The research tested the feasibility of such an approach, implemented an operational system, and tested the validity of the results for selected imaging spectrometer data sets.

Expert operator's associate: A knowledge based system for spacecraft control

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Nielsen, Mogens; Grue, Klaus; Lecouat, Francois

1991-01-01

The Expert Operator's Associate (EOA) project is presented which studies the applicability of expert systems for day-to-day space operations. A prototype expert system is developed, which operates on-line with an existing spacecraft control system at the European Space Operations Centre, and functions as an 'operator's assistant' in controlling satellites. The prototype is demonstrated using an existing real-time simulation model of the MARECS-B2 telecommunication satellite. By developing a prototype system, the extent to which reliability and effectivens of operations can be enhanced by AI based support is examined. In addition the study examines the questions of acquisition and representation of the 'knowledge' for such systems, and the feasibility of 'migration' of some (currently) ground-based functions into future spaceborne autonomous systems.

Volumetric glioma quantification: comparison of manual and semi-automatic tumor segmentation for the quantification of tumor growth.

PubMed

Odland, Audun; Server, Andres; Saxhaug, Cathrine; Breivik, Birger; Groote, Rasmus; Vardal, Jonas; Larsson, Christopher; Bjørnerud, Atle

2015-11-01

Volumetric magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is now widely available and routinely used in the evaluation of high-grade gliomas (HGGs). Ideally, volumetric measurements should be included in this evaluation. However, manual tumor segmentation is time-consuming and suffers from inter-observer variability. Thus, tools for semi-automatic tumor segmentation are needed. To present a semi-automatic method (SAM) for segmentation of HGGs and to compare this method with manual segmentation performed by experts. The inter-observer variability among experts manually segmenting HGGs using volumetric MRIs was also examined. Twenty patients with HGGs were included. All patients underwent surgical resection prior to inclusion. Each patient underwent several MRI examinations during and after adjuvant chemoradiation therapy. Three experts performed manual segmentation. The results of tumor segmentation by the experts and by the SAM were compared using Dice coefficients and kappa statistics. A relatively close agreement was seen among two of the experts and the SAM, while the third expert disagreed considerably with the other experts and the SAM. An important reason for this disagreement was a different interpretation of contrast enhancement as either surgically-induced or glioma-induced. The time required for manual tumor segmentation was an average of 16 min per scan. Editing of the tumor masks produced by the SAM required an average of less than 2 min per sample. Manual segmentation of HGG is very time-consuming and using the SAM could increase the efficiency of this process. However, the accuracy of the SAM ultimately depends on the expert doing the editing. Our study confirmed a considerable inter-observer variability among experts defining tumor volume from volumetric MRIs. © The Foundation Acta Radiologica 2014.

Directions in Rehabilitation Counseling, 2001.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Flach, Frederic, Ed.

2001-01-01

This volume of 12 lessons provides expert information on a variety of medical and psychological issues in rehabilitative counseling. The lessons, which may be applied toward continuing education credits, are: (1) "Integration of Psychiatric Treatment and Rehabilitation" (Jeanne Steiner, Larry Davidson, Michael A. Hoge, and Selby Jacobs);…

Leadership Styles.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mazzarella, Jo Ann; Smith, Stuart C.

Chapter 2 of a revised volume on school leadership, this chapter reviews theories of leadership style--the way a leader leads. Although most experts agree that leadership style is important, they disagree concerning style components, leaders' capabilities for changing styles, the effects of personality traits on style, and the desirability of…

The Principles of Designing an Expert System in Teaching Mathematics

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Salekhova, Lailya; Nurgaliev, Albert; Zaripova, Rinata; Khakimullina, Nailya

2013-01-01

This study reveals general didactic concepts of the Expert Systems (ES) development process in the educational area. The proof of concept is based on the example of teaching the 8th grade Algebra subject. The main contribution in this work is the implementation of innovative approaches in analysis and processing of data by expert system as well as…

Expert Systems, Job Aids, and the Future of Instructional Technology; and Decision Tables, the Poor Person's Answer to "Expert Systems."

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Harmon, Paul; Pipe, Peter

1986-01-01

Describes design and presents examples of industrial use of small expert systems and guidelines for choosing problems which lend themselves to small tool solutions. Use of microcomputer facilitated decision tables to diagnose and categorize people, things, and issues is suggested, and development of three decision table formats is described. (MBR)

A Strategic Plan for Support of Expert Systems in Organizations.

DTIC Science & Technology

1987-09-01

sequencing Job orders 1 2Li no. of companies answering this question: 34 m--t common use of expert systems: diagnosis 98 p pl 7 N71Z RPN 49r " ETF 1W...69 (December 1986). 16. Gold , Jordan. "Do-It-Yourself Expert Systems," Comouter Decisions: 76-81 (January 14, 1986). 17. Guterl, Fred U. "Computers

Expert system for analyzing eddy current measurements

DOEpatents

Levy, Arthur J.; Oppenlander, Jane E.; Brudnoy, David M.; Englund, James M.; Loomis, Kent C.

1994-01-01

A method and apparatus (called DODGER) analyzes eddy current data for heat exchanger tubes or any other metallic object. DODGER uses an expert system to analyze eddy current data by reasoning with uncertainty and pattern recognition. The expert system permits DODGER to analyze eddy current data intelligently, and obviate operator uncertainty by analyzing the data in a uniform and consistent manner.

Knowledge acquisition from natural language for expert systems based on classification problem-solving methods

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gomez, Fernando

1989-01-01

It is shown how certain kinds of domain independent expert systems based on classification problem-solving methods can be constructed directly from natural language descriptions by a human expert. The expert knowledge is not translated into production rules. Rather, it is mapped into conceptual structures which are integrated into long-term memory (LTM). The resulting system is one in which problem-solving, retrieval and memory organization are integrated processes. In other words, the same algorithm and knowledge representation structures are shared by these processes. As a result of this, the system can answer questions, solve problems or reorganize LTM.

Determination of Problematic ICD-9-CM Subcategories for Further Study of Coding Performance: Delphi Method

PubMed Central

Zeng, Xiaoming; Bell, Paul D

2011-01-01

In this study, we report on a qualitative method known as the Delphi method, used in the first part of a research study for improving the accuracy and reliability of ICD-9-CM coding. A panel of independent coding experts interacted methodically to determine that the three criteria to identify a problematic ICD-9-CM subcategory for further study were cost, volume, and level of coding confusion caused. The Medicare Provider Analysis and Review (MEDPAR) 2007 fiscal year data set as well as suggestions from the experts were used to identify coding subcategories based on cost and volume data. Next, the panelists performed two rounds of independent ranking before identifying Excisional Debridement as the subcategory that causes the most confusion among coders. As a result, they recommended it for further study aimed at improving coding accuracy and variation. This framework can be adopted at different levels for similar studies in need of a schema for determining problematic subcategories of code sets. PMID:21796264

A new metric for detecting change in slowly evolving brain tumors: validation in meningioma patients.

PubMed

Pohl, Kilian M; Konukoglu, Ender; Novellas, Sebastian; Ayache, Nicholas; Fedorov, Andriy; Talos, Ion-Florin; Golby, Alexandra; Wells, William M; Kikinis, Ron; Black, Peter M

2011-03-01

Change detection is a critical component in the diagnosis and monitoring of many slowly evolving pathologies. This article describes a semiautomatic monitoring approach using longitudinal medical images. We test the method on brain scans of patients with meningioma, which experts have found difficult to monitor because the tumor evolution is very slow and may be obscured by artifacts related to image acquisition. We describe a semiautomatic procedure targeted toward identifying difficult-to-detect changes in brain tumor imaging. The tool combines input from a medical expert with state-of-the-art technology. The software is easy to calibrate and, in less than 5 minutes, returns the total volume of tumor change in mm. We test the method on postgadolinium, T1-weighted magnetic resonance images of 10 patients with meningioma and compare our results with experts' findings. We also perform benchmark testing with synthetic data. Our experiments indicated that experts' visual inspections are not sensitive enough to detect subtle growth. Measurements based on experts' manual segmentations were highly accurate but also labor intensive. The accuracy of our approach was comparable to the experts' results. However, our approach required far less user input and generated more consistent measurements. The sensitivity of experts' visual inspection is often too low to detect subtle growth of meningiomas from longitudinal scans. Measurements based on experts' segmentation are highly accurate but generally too labor intensive for standard clinical settings. We described an alternative metric that provides accurate and robust measurements of subtle tumor changes while requiring a minimal amount of user input.

Capital Expert System

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dowell, Laurie; Gary, Jack; Illingworth, Bill; Sargent, Tom

1987-05-01

Gathering information, necessary forms, and financial calculations needed to generate a "capital investment proposal" is an extremely complex and difficult process. The intent of the capital investment proposal is to ensure management that the proposed investment has been thoroughly investigated and will have a positive impact on corporate goals. Meeting this requirement typically takes four or five experts a total of 12 hours to generate a "Capital Package." A Capital Expert System was therefore developed using "Personal Consultant." The completed system is hybrid and as such does not depend solely on rules but incorporates several different software packages that communicate through variables and functions passed from one to another. This paper describes the use of expert system techniques, methodology in building the knowledge base, contexts, LISP functions, data base, and special challenges that had to be overcome to create this system. The Capital Expert System is the successful result of a unique integration of artificial intelligence with business accounting, financial forms generation, and investment proposal expertise.

Probabilistic structural analysis methods for select space propulsion system components

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Millwater, H. R.; Cruse, T. A.

1989-01-01

The Probabilistic Structural Analysis Methods (PSAM) project developed at the Southwest Research Institute integrates state-of-the-art structural analysis techniques with probability theory for the design and analysis of complex large-scale engineering structures. An advanced efficient software system (NESSUS) capable of performing complex probabilistic analysis has been developed. NESSUS contains a number of software components to perform probabilistic analysis of structures. These components include: an expert system, a probabilistic finite element code, a probabilistic boundary element code and a fast probability integrator. The NESSUS software system is shown. An expert system is included to capture and utilize PSAM knowledge and experience. NESSUS/EXPERT is an interactive menu-driven expert system that provides information to assist in the use of the probabilistic finite element code NESSUS/FEM and the fast probability integrator (FPI). The expert system menu structure is summarized. The NESSUS system contains a state-of-the-art nonlinear probabilistic finite element code, NESSUS/FEM, to determine the structural response and sensitivities. A broad range of analysis capabilities and an extensive element library is present.

An expert system for water quality modelling.

PubMed

Booty, W G; Lam, D C; Bobba, A G; Wong, I; Kay, D; Kerby, J P; Bowen, G S

1992-12-01

The RAISON-micro (Regional Analysis by Intelligent System ON a micro-computer) expert system is being used to predict the effects of mine effluents on receiving waters in Ontario. The potential of this system to assist regulatory agencies and mining industries to define more acceptable effluent limits was shown in an initial study. This system has been further developed so that the expert system helps the model user choose the most appropriate model for a particular application from a hierarchy of models. The system currently contains seven models which range from steady state to time dependent models, for both conservative and nonconservative substances in rivers and lakes. The menu driven expert system prompts the model user for information such as the nature of the receiving water system, the type of effluent being considered, and the range of background data available for use as input to the models. The system can also be used to determine the nature of the environmental conditions at the site which are not available in the textual information database, such as the components of river flow. Applications of the water quality expert system are presented for representative mine sites in the Timmins area of Ontario.

Artificial Intelligence: The Expert Way.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bitter, Gary G.

1989-01-01

Discussion of artificial intelligence (AI) and expert systems focuses on their use in education. Characteristics of good expert systems are explained; computer software programs that contain applications of AI are described, highlighting one used to help educators identify learning-disabled students; and the future of AI is discussed. (LRW)

TES: A modular systems approach to expert system development for real time space applications

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

England, Brenda; Cacace, Ralph

1987-01-01

A major goal of the space station era is to reduce reliance on support from ground based experts. The TIMES Expert System (TES) is an application that monitors and evaluates real time data to perform fault detection and fault isolation as it would otherwise be carried out by a knowledgeable designer. The development process and primary features of the TES, the modular system and the lessons learned are discussed.

EMMA: The expert system for munition maintenance

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Mullins, Barry E.

1988-01-01

Expert Missile Maintenance Aid (EMMA) is a first attempt to enhance maintenance of the tactical munition at the field and depot level by using artificial intelligence (AI) techniques. The ultimate goal of EMMA is to help a novice maintenance technician isolate and diagnose electronic, electromechanical, and mechanical equipment faults to the board/chassis level more quickly and consistently than the best human expert using the best currently available automatic test equipment (ATE). To this end, EMMA augments existing ATE with an expert system that captures the knowledge of design and maintenance experts. The EMMA program is described, including the evaluation of field-level expert system prototypes, the description of several study tasks performed during EMMA, and future plans for a follow-on program. This paper will briefly address several study tasks performed during EMMA. The paper concludes with a discussion of future plans for a follow-on program and other areas of concern.

[Expert investigation on food safety standard system framework construction in China].

PubMed

He, Xiang; Yan, Weixing; Fan, Yongxiang; Zeng, Biao; Peng, Zhen; Sun, Zhenqiu

2013-09-01

Through investigating food safety standard framework among food safety experts, to summarize the basic elements and principles of food safety standard system, and provide policy advices for food safety standards framework. A survey was carried out among 415 experts from government, professional institutions and the food industry/enterprises using the National Food Safety Standard System Construction Consultation Questionnaire designed in the name of the Secretariat of National Food Safety Standard Committee. Experts have different advices in each group about the principles of food product standards, food additive product standards, food related product standards, hygienic practice, test methods. According to the results, the best solution not only may reflect experts awareness of the work of food safety standards situation, but also provide advices for setting and revision of food safety standards for the next. Through experts investigation, the framework and guiding principles of food safety standard had been built.

A prototype expert/information system for examining environmental risks of KSC activities

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Engel, Bernard A.

1993-01-01

Protection of the environment and natural resources at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) is of great concern. An expert/information system to replace the paper-based KSC Environmental Checklist was developed. The computer-based system requests information only as a required and supplies assistance as needed. The most comprehensive portion of the system provides information about endangered species habitat at KSC. This module uses geographic information system (GIS) data and tools, expert rules, color graphics, computer-based video, and hypertext to provide information.

Evaluation of HardSys/HardDraw, An Expert System for Electromagnetic Interactions Modelling

DTIC Science & Technology

1993-05-01

interactions ir complex systems. This report gives a description of HardSys/HardDraw and reviews the main concepts used in its design. Various aspects of its ...HardDraw, an expert system for the modelling of electromagnetic interactions in complex systems. It consists of two main components: HardSys and HardDraw...HardSys is the advisor part of the expert system. It is knowledge-based, that is it contains a database of models and properties for various types of

Expert Systems the Old Fashioned Way: Person to Person.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McCleary, Hunter; Mayer, William J.

1988-01-01

Describes the services of Teltech, Inc., which mimic the desirable attributes of artificial intelligence and expert systems via a "database" of 5,000 experts in technical areas and interactive literature searches executed by staff. Advantages and shortcomings of the network are exemplified by sample searches. Several sample menus and…

TROUBLE 3: A fault diagnostic expert system for Space Station Freedom's power system

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Manner, David B.

1990-01-01

Designing Space Station Freedom has given NASA many opportunities to develop expert systems that automate onboard operations of space based systems. One such development, TROUBLE 3, an expert system that was designed to automate the fault diagnostics of Space Station Freedom's electric power system is described. TROUBLE 3's design is complicated by the fact that Space Station Freedom's power system is evolving and changing. TROUBLE 3 has to be made flexible enough to handle changes with minimal changes to the program. Three types of expert systems were studied: rule-based, set-covering, and model-based. A set-covering approach was selected for TROUBLE 3 because if offered the needed flexibility that was missing from the other approaches. With this flexibility, TROUBLE 3 is not limited to Space Station Freedom applications, it can easily be adapted to handle any diagnostic system.

An intelligent user interface for browsing satellite data catalogs

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Cromp, Robert F.; Crook, Sharon

1989-01-01

A large scale domain-independent spatial data management expert system that serves as a front-end to databases containing spatial data is described. This system is unique for two reasons. First, it uses spatial search techniques to generate a list of all the primary keys that fall within a user's spatial constraints prior to invoking the database management system, thus substantially decreasing the amount of time required to answer a user's query. Second, a domain-independent query expert system uses a domain-specific rule base to preprocess the user's English query, effectively mapping a broad class of queries into a smaller subset that can be handled by a commercial natural language processing system. The methods used by the spatial search module and the query expert system are explained, and the system architecture for the spatial data management expert system is described. The system is applied to data from the International Ultraviolet Explorer (IUE) satellite, and results are given.

Artificial intelligence within the chemical laboratory.

PubMed

Winkel, P

1994-01-01

Various techniques within the area of artificial intelligence such as expert systems and neural networks may play a role during the problem-solving processes within the clinical biochemical laboratory. Neural network analysis provides a non-algorithmic approach to information processing, which results in the ability of the computer to form associations and to recognize patterns or classes among data. It belongs to the machine learning techniques which also include probabilistic techniques such as discriminant function analysis and logistic regression and information theoretical techniques. These techniques may be used to extract knowledge from example patients to optimize decision limits and identify clinically important laboratory quantities. An expert system may be defined as a computer program that can give advice in a well-defined area of expertise and is able to explain its reasoning. Declarative knowledge consists of statements about logical or empirical relationships between things. Expert systems typically separate declarative knowledge residing in a knowledge base from the inference engine: an algorithm that dynamically directs and controls the system when it searches its knowledge base. A tool is an expert system without a knowledge base. The developer of an expert system uses a tool by entering knowledge into the system. Many, if not the majority of problems encountered at the laboratory level are procedural. A problem is procedural if it is possible to write up a step-by-step description of the expert's work or if it can be represented by a decision tree. To solve problems of this type only small expert system tools and/or conventional programming are required.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

An expert system for spectroscopic analysis of rocket engine plumes

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Reese, Greg; Valenti, Elizabeth; Alphonso, Keith; Holladay, Wendy

1991-01-01

The expert system described in this paper analyzes spectral emissions of rocket engine exhaust plumes and shows major promise for use in engine health diagnostics. Plume emission spectroscopy is an important tool for diagnosing engine anomalies, but it is time-consuming and requires highly skilled personnel. The expert system was created to alleviate such problems. The system accepts a spectral plot in the form of wavelength vs intensity pairs and finds the emission peaks in the spectrum, lists the elemental emitters present in the data and deduces the emitter that produced each peak. The system consists of a conventional language component and a commercially available inference engine that runs on an Apple Macintosh computer. The expert system has undergone limited preliminary testing. It detects elements well and significantly decreases analysis time.

Expert system for web based collaborative CAE

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hou, Liang; Lin, Zusheng

2006-11-01

An expert system for web based collaborative CAE was developed based on knowledge engineering, relational database and commercial FEA (Finite element analysis) software. The architecture of the system was illustrated. In this system, the experts' experiences, theories and typical examples and other related knowledge, which will be used in the stage of pre-process in FEA, were categorized into analysis process and object knowledge. Then, the integrated knowledge model based on object-oriented method and rule based method was described. The integrated reasoning process based on CBR (case based reasoning) and rule based reasoning was presented. Finally, the analysis process of this expert system in web based CAE application was illustrated, and an analysis example of a machine tool's column was illustrated to prove the validity of the system.

Acquiring Expertise and Cognitive Skills in the Process of Constructing an Expert System: A Preliminary Study.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lai, Kwok-Wing

This study investigated the educational implications of having a group of 17 first-year New Zealand nursing students develop a medical expert system. Goals of the study were to determine whether, in the process of developing the expert system, the learners could: (1) acquire a more in-depth understanding of the specific subject domain under study…

Using CLIPS as the cornerstone of a graduate expert systems course

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Yue, Kwok-Bun

1991-01-01

The effective use of the C Language Integrated Production System (CLIPS) as a cornerstone in a graduate expert systems course is described. The course include 8 or 9 hours of in-depth lecturing in CLIPS, as well as a broad coverage of major topics and techniques in expert systems. As part of the requirements of the course, students solved two small yet non-trival problems in CLIPS before going on to develop a toy expert system in CLIPS in an incremental manner as the term project. Furthermore, students were required to evaluate CLIPS programs written by their classmates. An anonymous questionnaire at the end of the semester revealed that the students responded very favorably to the course, especially their experience with CLIPS.

Probabilistic accident consequence uncertainty analysis: Dispersion and deposition uncertainty assessment, appendices A and B

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Harper, F.T.; Young, M.L.; Miller, L.A.

The development of two new probabilistic accident consequence codes, MACCS and COSYMA, completed in 1990, estimate the risks presented by nuclear installations based on postulated frequencies and magnitudes of potential accidents. In 1991, the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and the Commission of the European Communities (CEC) began a joint uncertainty analysis of the two codes. The objective was to develop credible and traceable uncertainty distributions for the input variables of the codes. Expert elicitation, developed independently, was identified as the best technology available for developing a library of uncertainty distributions for the selected consequence parameters. The study was formulatedmore » jointly and was limited to the current code models and to physical quantities that could be measured in experiments. To validate the distributions generated for the wet deposition input variables, samples were taken from these distributions and propagated through the wet deposition code model along with the Gaussian plume model (GPM) implemented in the MACCS and COSYMA codes. Resulting distributions closely replicated the aggregated elicited wet deposition distributions. Project teams from the NRC and CEC cooperated successfully to develop and implement a unified process for the elaboration of uncertainty distributions on consequence code input parameters. Formal expert judgment elicitation proved valuable for synthesizing the best available information. Distributions on measurable atmospheric dispersion and deposition parameters were successfully elicited from experts involved in the many phenomenological areas of consequence analysis. This volume is the second of a three-volume document describing the project and contains two appendices describing the rationales for the dispersion and deposition data along with short biographies of the 16 experts who participated in the project.« less

Which technology to select for primary focal treatment of prostate cancer?-European Section of Urotechnology (ESUT) position statement.

PubMed

Ganzer, Roman; Arthanareeswaran, Vinodh Kumar Adithyaa; Ahmed, Hashim U; Cestari, Andrea; Rischmann, Pascal; Salomon, Georg; Teber, Dogu; Liatsikos, Evangelos; Stolzenburg, Jens-Uwe; Barret, Eric

2018-05-09

With growing interest in focal therapy (FT) of prostate cancer (PCa) there is an increasing armamentarium of treatment modalities including high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU), cryotherapy, focal laser ablation (FLA), irreversible electroporation (IRE), vascular targeted photodynamic therapy (VTP), focal brachytherapy (FBT) and stereotactic ablative radiotherapy (SABR). Currently there are no clear recommendations as to which of these technologies are appropriate for individual patient characteristics. Our intention was to review the literature for special aspects of the different technologies that might be of advantage depending on individual patient and tumour characteristics. The current literature on FT was screened for the following factors: morbidity, repeatability, tumour risk category, tumour location, tumour size and prostate volume and anatomical issues. The ESUT expert panel arrived at consensus regarding a position statement on a structured pathway for available FT technologies based on a combination of the literature and expert opinion. Side effects were low across different studies and FT modalities with urinary continence rates of 90-100% and erectile dysfunction between 5 and 52%. Short to medium cancer control based on post-treatment biopsies were variable between ablative modalities. Expert consensus suggested that posterior lesions are better amenable to FT using HIFU. Cryotherapy provides best possible outcomes for anterior tumours. Apical lesions, when treated with FBT, may yield the least urethral morbidity. Further prospective trials are required to assess medium to long term disease control of different ablative modalities for FT. Amongst different available FT modalities our ESUT expert consensus suggests that some may be better for diffe`rent tumour locations. Tumour risk, tumour size, tumour location, and prostate volume are all important factors to consider and might aid in designing future FT trials.