FOXEA@VTVAX3.BITNET (02/02/88)
IRList Digest Sunday, 31 January 1988 Volume 4 : Issue 5
Today's Topics:
Abstracts - New Dissertations (part 1 of 3)
News addresses are
Internet or CSNET: fox@vtopus.cs.vt.edu
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Date: Thu, 28 Jan 88 22:42:30 EST
From: "Susanne M. HUMPHREY" <humphrey@MCS.NLM.NIH.GOV>
Subject: new dissertations
Selected IR-Related Dissertation Abstracts
Compiled by:
Susanne M. Humphrey, National Library of Medicine, Bethesda, MD 20894
The following are citations selected by title and abstract as being
related to Information Retrieval (IR), resulting from a computer
search, using the BRS Information Technologies retrieval service, of
the Dissertation Abstracts International (DAI) database produced
by University Microfilms International.
Included are the UM order number and year-month of entry into the
database; author; university, degree, and, if available, number of
pages; title; DAI subject category chosen by the author of the
dissertation; and abstract. References are sorted first by DAI
subject category and second by author. Citations denoted by an
MAI reference do not yet have abstracts in the database and refer
to abstracts in the published Masters Abstracts International.
Unless otherwise specified, paper or microform copies of
dissertations may be ordered from University Microfilms
International, Dissertation Copies, Post Office Box 1764, Ann Arbor,
MI 48106; telephone for U.S. (except Michigan, Hawaii, Alaska):
1-800-521-3042, for Canada: 1-800-268-6090. Price lists and other
ordering and shipping information are in the introduction to the
published DAI. An alternate source for copies is sometimes
provided at the end of the abstract.
The dissertation titles and abstracts contained here are published
with permission of University Microfilms International, publishers
of Dissertation Abstracts International (copyright by University
Microfilms International), and may not be reproduced without their
prior permission.
AN University Microfilms Order Number ADG87-23759.
AU HALL, DOUGLAS LEE.
IN North Texas State University Ph.D 1987, 151 pages.
TI A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF GUIDED VS. QUERY-BASED INTELLIGENT
TUTORING SYSTEMS (ITS) USING A CLASS - ENTITY - RELATIONSHIP -
ATTRIBUTE (CERA) KNOWLEDGE BASE.
SO DAI v48(08), SecB.
DE Computer Science.
AB One of the greatest problems facing researchers in the subfield of
Artificial Intelligence known as Intelligent Tutoring Systems
(ITS) is the selection of a knowledge base designs that will
facilitate the modification of the knowledge base. The
Class-Entity-Relationship-Attribute (CERA), proposed by R. P.
Brazile, holds certain promise as a more generic knowledge base
design framework upon which can be built robust and efficient ITS.
This study has a twofold purpose. The first is to demonstrate that
a CERA knowledge base can be constructed for an ITS on a subset of
the domain of Cretaceous paleontology and function as the "expert
module" of the ITS. The second is to test the validity of the
ideas that students guided through a lesson learn more factual
knowledge, while those who explore the knowledge base that
underlies the lesson through query at their own pace will be able
to formulate their own integrative knowledge from the knowledge
gained in their explorations and spend more time on the system.
This study concludes that a CERA-based system can be constructed
as an effective teaching tool. However, while an ITS-treatment
provides for statistically significant gains in achievement test
scores, the type of treatment seems not to matter as much as time
spent on task. This would seem to indicate that a query-based
system which allows the user to progress at their own pace would
be a better type of system for the presentation of material due to
the greater amount of on-line computer time exhibited by the
users.
AN University Microfilms Order Number ADG87-22093.
AU JIANG, WEI-SI.
IN University of Cincinnati Ph.D 1987, 178 pages.
TI A KNOWLEDGE SYSTEM USING HYBRID REASONING SCHEMES AND EXPLOITING A
RELATIONAL DATA-BASE AS A FRAME-LIKE KNOWLEDGE BASE.
SO DAI v48(07), SecB.
DE Computer Science.
AB This dissertation describes an expert system shell PAIS-I and
several prototype systems developed using this shell. The PAIS-I
system has a couple of special facilities to support hybrid
reasoning schemes, and is capable of exploiting a relational
database as a frame-like knowledge base.
First generation expert systems reason from rules of thumb, or use
heuristic reasoning. They have limited problem-solving ability and
a fragile behavior at the boundary of the field domain.
Model-based reasoning employs a different approach. In this
approach, we first build a model of the system's structure,
function and causality, and then reason about this model.
With a specific problem domain-electronic trouble-shooting, three
small prototype expert systems were developed using the PAIS-I
shell. Each of them employs a different reasoning scheme: the
first one uses heuristic reasoning only, the second one uses
model-based reasoning only, and the third one combines the first
two approaches and uses a hybrid reasoning scheme. The comparative
study shows that the heuristic approach is of high efficiency, but
the problem-solving ability is limited. The model-based approach
has powerful problem-solving ability, but is inefficient. The
combined approach supported by the PAIS-I shell can achieve high
efficiency as well as powerful problem-solving ability. The
special facilities of the PAIS-I shell enable the implementation
of this hybrid reasoning scheme easier and more convenient than
the existing shells.
The PAIS-I shell has a direct access to an external database
management system (DBMS) for fetching the information from the
database. It also has a DBMS frame interpreter to transform the
information into executable Prolog clauses representing a frame.
With the support of these facilities, the system is capable of
exploiting passive data in the database as active knowledge for
making useful inferences. With the help of the PAIS-I system
facilities, a hardware verification prototype was developed using
a novel approach. An implementation of commonsense reasoning was
also studied, which is able to solve well-known Whether Birds Can
Fly and Temporal Projection problems.
AN University Microfilms Order Number ADG87-21992.
AU NAPOLIELLO, MICHAEL FELIX.
IN Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University Ph.D 1987
160 pages.
TI A STUDY OF MANAGERIAL COMPUTER USERS: THE IMPACT OF USER
SOPHISTICATION ON DECISION STRUCTURE AND ATTRIBUTES OF
DECISION-RELATED INFORMATION.
SO DAI v48(07), SecB.
DE Computer Science.
AB With the advent of information technology, MIS research has tried
to understand and describe the impact of this technology on
organizations. To date the vast majority of this research has
focused on a macro-level of analysis. But the introduction of the
microcomputer has significantly altered the focus of computing
through the development of a body of managerial computer users.
This study looked at the following questions: What factors
constitute an information technology user environment? What are
the usage and knowledge differences which constitute a concept of
user sophistication? Do those differences significantly impact on
a user's level of structured decisions and assessment of
information attributes? To answer these questions a study was
conducted of 229 middle managers in two academic institutions. The
author developed a conceptual model of an information technology
user to serve as the basis for the analysis. The study employed a
multivariate regression analysis to test hypotheses developed from
the user model. The results indicated that a positive relationship
exists between managerial computer usage and a high perceived
level of structured decisions. Furthermore, there was a strong
association between a managerial user's level of computer
understanding and his assessment of information reliability and
sufficiency. The study also identified significant differences in
a user's information technology environments and cognitive types.
AN University Microfilms Order Number ADG87-20324.
AU PARK, JONG-TAE.
IN The University of Michigan Ph.D 1987, 225 pages.
TI A KNOWLEDGE-BASED APPROACH TO MULTIPLE TRANSACTION PROCESSING AND
DISTRIBUTED DATABASE DESIGN.
SO DAI v48(06), SecB, pp1740.
DE Computer Science.
AB The collective processing of multiple transactions in a database
system has recently received renewed attention due to its
capability of improving the overall performance of a database
system and its applicability to the design of knowledge-based
expert systems and extensible database systems. This dissertation
consists of two parts. The first part presents a new
knowledge-based approach to the problems of processing multiple
concurrent queries and distributing replicated data objects for
further improvement of the overall system performance. The second
part deals with distributed database design, i.e., designing
horizontal fragments using a semantic knowledge, and allocating
data in a distributed environment.
The semantic knowledge on data such as functional dependencies and
semantic data integrity constraints are newly exploited for the
identification of subset relationships between intermediate
results of query executions involving joins, such that the
(intermediate) results of queries can be utilized for the
efficient processing of other queries. The concept of the
conventional query graph is extended to represent distributed
transaction executions by the inclusion of site information. A
state of the problem space is represented by this extended query
graph. The expertise on the collective processing of multiple
transactions is embodied into the rules of a rule-based expert
system, MTP (Multiple Transaction Processor). These expert rules
exploit large amounts of domain-specific semantic knowledge to
reformulate the execution plans of queries such that the overall
processing cost is substantially reduced. MTP employs the planning
technique combined with search method where the plan step infers
the necessary constraints, and the search step achieves optimal
solutions utilizing the ${\rm A\sp\ast}$ or branch and bound
search technique.
In the second part, MTP is applied for the determination of
horizontal fragments exploiting the semantic knowledge. Heuristics
for allocating data in local area networks are developed.
In summary, this knowledge-based approach adds to knowledge for
the processing of multiple transactions in a distributed
environment, and to the design of knowledge-based expert systems
which require efficient access to a large knowledge-base
implemented on (distributed) relational database systems.
AN University Microfilms Order Number ADG87-20651.
AU POTTER, TERRY WAYNE.
IN State University of New York at Binghamton Ph.D 1987, 214
pages.
TI STORING AND RETRIEVING DATA IN A PARALLEL DISTRIBUTED MEMORY SYSTEM.
SO DAI v48(06), SecB, pp1740.
DE Computer Science.
AB The storage and retrieval of patterns in a Hopfield parallel
distributed memory is investigated experimentally with a view
toward increasing its storage capacity.
The first two Chapters give an overview of distributed memories
and in particular the Hopfield distributed memory. This is
followed by a Chapter which experimentally identifies the basic
storage capacity of the original Hopfield memory when using text
patterns.
This dissertation then experimentally investigates new and
untested methods to increase the storage capabilities of a
Hopfield memory. Increasing the storage capacity by using the
continuous-valued Hopfield memory is explored in Chapter 3 and the
impact on capacity of data representation is experimentally
investigated in Chapter 4. We then focus on new ways of storing
data (changing the interconnect strengths) including in Chapter 7
developing a new method called Modifying the Energy Contour- MEC.
In addition, this Chapter also outlines how to increase
error-tolerance through the use of noisy patterns.
The Hopfield memory is then contrasted to another intelligent
memory subsystem based on more of a traditional computer
technology. In Chapter 8 we see that traditional computer
technology using data-parallel techniques has a greater storage
efficiency than possible with current Hopfield distributed
memories. The design of this data-parallel memory is based in part
on what is learned experimentally from the preceding Chapters on
the Hopfield memory. This fast data-parallel approach also
supports retrieval of data patterns with noisy inputs although it
does not have all the functionality of the Hopfield distributed
memory.
The following three results are the most significant outcomes of
this dissertation. Experimentally, it was determined that: (1) The
Hopfield memory during recall did a parallel, nearest-neighbor
pattern search procedure. (2) The storage capacity of the Hopfield
memory can be significantly improved but the storage efficiency is
far less than data-parallel based associative memories. (3) A
data-parallel implementation of the Nearest-Neighbor Rule provides
for fast parallel search of pattern space and can support
software-based learning procedures. This implementation can then
behave as a Parallel Associative Memory dealing with inexact data
in the recall key.
[Note: more in issues 6 and 7 - Ed]
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END OF IRList Digest
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