bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The international protection of the cultural and natural heritage
Authors: Goy Raymond H.M.
Published: July 2009

The protection of cultural objects through international law has developed significantly in the last couple of decades. Protection in the event of armed conflict was the subject matter of a convention in 1954; in 1970, measures were taken aimed at controlling the movement of recognized art treasures and other cultural property and, in recent years, efforts have been made to ensure the protection of immovable works of art in peace time. The latter works are threatened not only by age and cataclysms, through ignorance and vandalism of men but also, and increasingly, through the occupation of space required for the progress of civilization, such as the extension of residential zones, agriculture, industry, and the infrastructure for transport, and, generally by the devastating results of modern life manifested through industry and transportation. Even when protected these objects may suffer from old age and the fact that they have been turned into dead musea.
International cooperation for the protection of the waters of the Rhine basin against pollution
Authors: Lammers Johan G.
Published: July 2009

During the last century the use of water in Western Europe has increased enormously as the result of the growth of the population and the expansion of industrial and agricultural activities. At the same time and for the same reason the quality of the available fresh water resources has also rapidly deteriorated. The river Rhine in particular, once so often praised for its beauty, is nowadays, especially in its downstream sections, little more than an open sewer. This river has become seriously polluted with organic substances, chloride, heavy metals and other chemical pollutants. In recent years moreover a new form of pollution has made its appearance, namely the heating of the water through the discharge of cooling water by (nuclear) power stations. The heavy pollution of the Rhine not only affects the ecological balance but also other interests, such as the supply of drinking water, the use of the water for industrial purposes, agriculture, horticulture and recreation.
The regime of navigation on international waterways; Part. I: The beneficiaries of the right of navigation
Authors: Vitányi Béla
Published: July 2009

The text of this paragraph is divided into two parts, each corresponding to the two kinds of obstacles which, at the time, stood in the way of the free exercise of navigation on the Rhine.
The Conference of government experts on the use of certain conventional weapons, Lucerne, 24 September- 18 October 1974
Authors: Kalshoven Frits
Published: July 2009

In previous volumes of this Yearbook, the present author has put on record a series of events under the common denominator of “reaffirmation and development of international humanitarian law applicable in armed conflict”. The latest event so recorded was the first session of the Diplomatic Conference on humanitarian law, held in Geneva at the beginning of 1974. At this session discussion of the two Draft Additional Protocols to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949 prepared by the International Committee of the Red Cross (or ICRC) was commenced. A second session of this Conference has meanwhile been held, from 3 February to 18 April 1975, and a third session is scheduled to take place from 21 April to 11 June 1976. In view of the considerable amount of work already done at the second session, and assuming that the same constructive spirit which prevailed during this session wil persist during the next, it may confidently be expected that the 1976 session will suffice, at least, to finish the work on the first reading of the Draft Protocols. This will then provide an excellent opportunity to enter into some of the more salient features of the Draft Protocols, in the light of the amendments to them brought in the course of the Diplomatic Conference.
Succession of States and international organizations
Authors: Schermers Henry G.
Published: July 2009

On 26 July 1974 the International Law Commission (ILC) adopted its final draft articles on succession of States in respect of treaties and recommended that the General Assembly of the UN convene an international conference to study the draft and to conclude a convention. This terminated twelve years of work during which the ILC studied five reports of Sir Humphrey Waldock, one of Sir Francis Vallat – both Special Rapporteurs for the topic – and many observations from Member States. In December 1974 the General Assembly asked for further comments from the Member States, and deferred further discussion until its 30th session (1975).
The draft European Convention of the Council of Europe for the protection of international watercourses against pollution
Authors: Lammers Johan G.
Published: July 2009

In the past few decades the quality of European rivers and lakes has deteriorated considerably as a result of the growth of population and the expansion of industrial and agricultural activities. Since pollution does not stop at State frontiers riparian States of international watercourses must cooperate in fighting it. In the course of time a number of European States have therefore agreed on treaty provisions to counteract the pollution of certain international rivers or lakes. The first of these provisions are to be found in certain fisheries agreements concluded at the end of the 19th century. Further, since the Second World War, treaties have been concluded especially for the purpose of abating pollution. However, these provisions and treaties –which have a limited geographic scope and vary in nature– have as yet not been very effective.
Parametric-based dynamic synthesis of 3D-gait
Authors: Bessonnet Guy , Marot Jérôme , Seguin Pascal , Sardain Philippe
Published: July 2009

This paper describes a dynamic synthesis method for generating optimal walking patterns of biped robots having a human-like locomotion system. The generating principle of gait is based on the minimisation of driving torques. A parametric optimisation technique is used to solve the underlying optimal control problem. Special attention is devoted to foot-ground interactions in order to ensure a steady dynamic balance of the biped. Transition states between step sub-phases are fully optimised together with step length and sub-phase lengths with respect to a given walking velocity. The data needed to generate purely cyclic steps can be reduced to the forward velocity.
Knowledge-acquisition tools with explicit problem-solving models
Authors: Birmingham William , Klinker Georg
Published: July 2009

In the past decade, expert systems have been applied to a wide variety of application tasks. A central problem of expert system development and maintenance is the demand placed on knowledge engineers and domain experts. A commonly proposed solution is knowledge-acquisition tools. This paper reviews a class of knowledge-acquisition tools that presuppose the problem-solving method, as well as the structure of the knowledge base. These explicit problem-solving models are exploited by the tools during knowledge-acquisition, knowledge generalization, error checking and code generation.
Conceptual models for automatic generation of knowledge-acquisition tools
Authors: Eriksson Henrik , Musen Mark A.
Published: July 2009

Interactive knowledge-acquisition (KA) programs allow users to enter relevant domain knowledge according to a model predefined by the tool developers. KA tools are designed to provideconceptual modelsof the knowledge to their users. Many different classes of models are possible, resulting in different categories of tools. Whenever it is possible to describe KA tools according to explicit conceptual models, it is also possible to edit the models and to instantiate new KA tools automatically for specialized purposes. Severalmeta-toolsthat address this task have been implemented. Meta-tools provide developers of domain-specific KA tools with generic design models, ormeta-views, of the emerging KA tools. The same KA tool can be specified according to several alternative meta-views.
Knowledge acquisition tools based on personal construct psychology
Authors: Gaines Brian R. , Shaw Mildred L. G.
Published: July 2009

Knowledge acquisition research supports the generation of knowledge-based systems through the development of principles, techniques, methodologies and tools. What differentiates knowledge-based system development from conventional system development is the emphasis on in-depth understanding and formalization of the relations between the conceptual structures underlying expert performance and the computational structures capable of emulating that performance.

Personal construct psychology is a theory of individual and group psychological and social processes that has been used extensively in knowledge acquisition research to model the cognitive processes of human experts. The psychology takes a constructivist position appropriate to the modelling of human knowledge processes, but develops this through the characterization of human conceptual structures in axiomatic terms that translate directly to computational form. In particular, there is a close correspondence between the intensional logics of knowledge, belief and action developed in personal construct psychology, and the intensional logics for formal knowledge representation developed in artificial intelligence research as term subsumption, or KL-ONE-like, systems.

This paper gives an overview of personal construct psychology and its expression as an intensional logic describing the cognitive processes of anticipatory agents, and uses this to survey knowledge acquisition tools deriving from personal construct psychology.
An overview of production rules in database systems
Authors: Hanson Eric N. , Widom Jennifer
Published: July 2009

Database researchers have recognized that integrating a production rules facility into a database system provides a uniform mechanism for a number of advanced database features including integrity constraint enforcement, derived data maintenance, triggers, protection, version control, and others. In addition, a database system with rule processing capabilities provides a useful platform for large and efficient knowledge-base and expert systems. Database systems with production rules are referred to asactive database systems, and the field of active database systems has indeed been active. This paper summarizes current work in active database systems, and suggests future research directions. Topics covered include database rule languages, rule processing semantics, and implementation issues.
Artificial Intelligence in business I: Applications, representation, acquisition and explanation
Authors: O'Leary Daniel E.
Published: July 2009

The purpose of this paper is to review the use of knowledge-based systems and artificial intelligence (AI) in business. Part I of this paper examines domain applications, the use of different knowledge representations, unique contributions for knowledge acquisition from the development of systems for business applications, and models of explanation for systems developed for business. In addition, the paper discusses the use of both normative and descriptive AI systems to model business judgments. Finally, the paper provides a summary of publication sources and meetings on business systems.
Natural language generation in critiquing
Authors: Rankin Ivan
Published: July 2009

A central area of application for knowledge-based systems is for giving consultative advice to the user. Such systems engage the user in a dialogue in the process of collecting enough information to be able to infer a conclusion from the knowledge base. Traditionally, then, the main initiative in the consultation process has been allocated to the system
A short account of Knowledge Engineering
Authors: Fox John
Published: July 2009

Although expert systems and knowledge engineering are attracting great attention there is still confusion about what they are. Most expert systems deal with problems which are familiar to other disciplines and their distinctive character is not always recognised. This tutorial describes the origins of expert systems in Artificial Intelligence, and the technical concept of “knowledge”. The central feature is the ideal of explicitly representing knowledge as facts, rules and other symbolic structures, rather than the traditional representation as abstract numbers or algorithms. These developments yield new solutions to old problems, and ways of solving problems whcih have previously been thought to be the preserve of the human intellect.
The Commercial Application of Expert Systems Technology
Authors: Johnson Tim
Published: July 2009

The relentless growth of the computer industry over more than 30 years has been driven on by a series of major innovations. High-level languages; solid-state logic; compatible machine ranges; disk storage; time-sharing; data communications; virtual machine architectures; the use of LSI and solid-state memory; text processing; personal computers; sucessful packaged software; each advance in its turn has opened up new markets and set off a new spurt of expansion. A vital conclusion of this study is that expert systems promise to be another such major innovation.
Cognitive emulation in expert system design
Authors: Slatter Philip E.
Published: July 2009

Cognitive emulation is an expert system design strategy which attempts to model system performance on human (expert) thinking. Arguments for and against cognitive emulation are reviewed. A major conclusion is that a significant degree of cognitive emulation is an inherent feature of design, but that an unselective application of the strategy is both unrealistic and undesirable. Pragmatic considerations which limit or facilitate the viability of a cognitive emulation approach are discussed. Particular attention is given to the conflict between cognitive emulation and established knowledge engineering objectives, detailed over 12 typical expert system features. The paper suggests circumstances in which a strategy of cognitive emulation is useful.
Expert Systems in Statistics
Authors: Hand D.J.
Published: July 2009

Statistical expert systems are attracting increasing attention as a possible way to alleviate the shortage of expert consultant statisticians. This paper summarises the requirements of such systems, showing how the demands of data analysis are different from those of other fields, and describes some recent work.
Natural Language Computing: The Commercial Applications
Authors: Johnson Tim
Published: July 2009

The computer industry is in the early stages of a revolution. Its capability for processing natural languages will advance dramatically over the next few years. As a result, computer systems which deal with human language will begin to play a central role in the industry. Computers will becooome significantly more accessible to many people, and many tasks which are wholly manual will be handled electronically.
Comparative Evaluation of Three Expert System Development Tools: Kee, Knowledge Craft, Art
Authors: Laurent Jean-Pierre , Ayel Jacqueline , Thome Franck , Ziebelin Danielle
Published: July 2009

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate and compare three of the most powerful expert system tools available: KEE from Intellicorp, Knowledge Craft from The Carnegie Group Inc., and ART from Inference Corporation.

These three tools are industrial development environments which are fully supported and well beyond research prototypes. They were implemented on Lisp machines initially, but will soon be available on conventional computers. The three systems are very flexible and offer many ways of representing knowledge.

The first part of the paper is a technical overview of each tool. The second part presents their common features. The third part discusses the advantages and drawbacks of each, according to types of application.

This work has been partially sponsored by the Commission of the European communities within the Esprit Project 932 entitled ‘Knowledged-based Real-Time supervision in Computer Integrated Manufacturing’. We are grateful to Didier Gaget-Soufflot (Graphael, France) and Bernard Raust (CGE/TITN) for their participation in the evaluation of KEE and ART respectivily.
Capturing Expertise by Rule Induction
Authors: Bloomfield Brian P.
Published: July 2009

This paper examines the claim that machine induction can alleviate the current knowledge engineering bottleneck in expert system construction. It presents a case study of the rule induction software tool known as Expert-Ease and proposes a set of criteria which might guide the selection of appropriate domains.
The control of reasoning under uncertainty: A discussion of some programs
Authors: Cohen Paul R.
Published: July 2009

This paper proposes that managing uncertainty is acontrolproblem, a task for the control component of AI systems that decides what to do next. This view emphasizes the process of planning and executing sequences of actions that simultaneously satisfy domain goals and minimize uncertainty. The paper reviews AI systems that manage uncertainty by control. It is not an exhaustive survey, but rather illustrates issues in managing uncertainty with selected AI programs.
Experiences with a knowledge engineering toolkit: an assessment in industrial robotics
Authors: Robinson V. , Hardy N.W. , Barnes D.P. , Price C.J. , Lee M.H.
Published: July 2009

Some of the issues involved in purchasing and using one of the powerful Knowledge Engineering Toolkits are examined. A case study problem is described and several products are reviewed as potential environments for implementing a solution. Experiences of using one System, ART, are described and observations are made regarded the selection, evaluation and use of such packages.
Capturing expertise by rule induction
Authors: Bloomfield Brian P.
Published: July 2009

This paper examines the claim that machine induction can alleviate the current knowledge engineering bottleneck in expert system construction. It presents a case study of the rule induction software tool known as Expert-Ease and proposes a set of criteria which might guide the selection of appropriate domains.
Some comments on rule induction
Authors: Bratko Ivan , Michie Donald
Published: July 2009

Computer induction is discussed in the light of concerns recently expressed by Bloomfield about the use of such algorithms in expert systems construction.
More comments on rule induction: A reply to Bratko and Michie
Authors: Bloomfield Brian P.
Published: July 2009

In their paper “Some Comments on Rule Induction” Bratko and Michie address only three of the seven concerns that I put forward in my original article. Significantly, they have chosen to ignore the deeper and more important philosophical issues which I raised, while seeking to deflect my concerns by proclaiming their own privileged position of “being in the know” as experienced rule inductionists. This is a strategy well-known to philosophers and sociologists of science, unfortunately, it tends to stifle debate and avoids the serious consideration of constructive criticism. It is therefore important to respond to the comments made by Bratko and Michie and to re-focus attention on the central themes of my argument.
A framework for technology transfer within the Artificial Intelligence Applications Institute
Authors: Drummond Mark , Macintosh Ann , Tate Austin , Barlow Dave , Greenwood Mark
Published: July 2009

The University of Edinburgh established the Artificial Institute (AIAI) in 1984 with the objective of transferring the technologies of artificial intelligence from the academic research environment to the practical worlds of commerce, government and industry.
Trends in the marketing of expert system technology
Authors: Teschler Leland
Published: July 2009

As recently as a year ago, trade journal articles that discussed expert systems often carried a great deal of hyperbole and inflated claims. Many otherwise sophisticated technologists put expert-system techniques in the same category with such far-off ideas as orbiting missile defense systems and thinking machines.
The current impact of expert systems on the accounting profession and some reasons for hesitancy in the adoption of such systems
Authors: Connell N.A.D.
Published: July 2009

There is a growing awareness of the potential of expert systems in the accounting profession, although the number of applications is limited. This paper assesses whether the profession is dragging its heels, or whether it is being wisely cautious.
Critical note—artificial intelligence and legal reasoning
Authors: Susskind Richard E.
Published: July 2009

Solving a legal problem is a complex business. First, the lawyer—or whoever is doing the solving—has to assemble and marshall the facts of his case in as orderly a fashion as his knowledge of the relevant law will allow. Secondly, he must confront the range of pertinent legal sources and decompose these into manageable and applicable units. Thirdly, he will subsume the particular facts of his case under the more general terms of his decomposed units. And, finally, he draws inferences about the applicable legal provisions and their impact on the facts. Of course, assembly, decomposition, subsumption and inference may not occur in linear progression. What is more, problems can cccur at each stage and interim evaluations and judgments must be made.
Statistical applications of artificial intelligence and knowledge engineering
Authors: Gale William A.
Published: July 2009

Knowledge engineering (KE) has now provided some effective techniques for formalization of knowledge about goals and actions. These techniques could open new areas of research to statisticians. Experimental systems designed to assist users of statistics have been constructed in experiment design, data analysis, technique application, and technique selection. Knowledge formalization has also been used in experimental programs to assist statisticians in doing data analysis and in building consultation systems. The best-explored application of KE techniques is building consultation systems. It is now a promising area for development. Analogies with successful artificial intelligence AI applications in other fields suggest other statistical applications worth exploring. Opening new areas to research and providing new tools to users would make considerable changes in the use and production of statistical techniques. However, applying currently available KE techniques will lead to more work for statisticians, not less.
Knowledge based interpretation of images: a biomedical perspective
Authors: Walker Nicholas , Fox John
Published: July 2009

The traditions of image processing and knowledge engineering have developed separately. Work on AI vision systems lies between the two traditions but only recently has attention been given to combining practical imaging systems with methods for exploiting knowledge in interpreting the contents of an image. Five general approaches to combining knowledge based expert systems with imaging technologies are discussed. Particular attention is paid to the requirement for techniques which transform a pixel array into a symbolic form suitable for interpretation, and current obstacles to a general solution. Interpretation of biomedical images is particularly problematic because of statistical, structural and temporal variation in morphology of objects and structures. Some ways in which knowledge of shape, structure, and object classifications may contribute to this interpretation are discussed. The survey focuses on biomedical images but many of the issues are of general relevance to work in image understanding.
A survey of French developments in knowledge-based systems
Authors: Rault Jean-Claude
Published: July 2009

Like other industrialized countries, France is currently enjoying a vogue for artificial intelligence and, generally, for hardware and software components and structures which will be needed for the design and implementation of the computer applications of the 1990s.

Since public announcement of MITI's Fifth Generation Project in October 1981, the French scientific and industrial communications have exhibited increasing enthusiasm for AI languages, expert systems, man-computer interaction, novel computer architectures, and knowledge-based computer systems as a whole. The choice of the Prolog language for the Japanese project has stimulated many French industrialists to be aware of the existence of a basic AI tool designed mainly in France.

In spite of the present fashion, often maintained by the journalistic milieu, it would be inaccurate to say that the French fifth generation project goes back to the Japanese announcement. The MITI project has certainly been a catalyst of ministerial and industrial awareness, but the bulk of ongoing projects stem from earlier work most often funded by government agencies.

In spite of the current thrust in AI and the centralizing habit in France, a “flagship” AI project cannot be identified. French Research and Development initiatives in artificial intelligence in general, and expert systems in particular, correspond more to a set of distinct projects. These frequently complement each other in technical scope and in their scientific and industrial objectives.
First generation expert systems: a review of knowledge acquisition methodologies
Authors: Neale Ian M.
Published: July 2009

This paper reviews a wide range of knowledge acquisition techniques in the context of attempts to achieve a systematic methodology. These have been poorly documented by expert system builders, who are often inclined to overvalue textbooks and the ways experts themselves claim they solve problems. No one method has a universal advantage; each has some value. Techniques should be selected to suit the domain, the task, the expert and the knowledge engineer. Knowledge acquisition involves creating a conceptual model of expert knowledge and reasoning, from analysis of data elicited by these techniques. A survey of the literature indicates increasing emphasis on tools for knowledge acquisition, used directly by experts. Several projects currently directed towards providing a proper epistemological foundation for knowledge acquisition are discussed and compared. None has yet produced a complete epistemologically sound methodology; however, recognition of the need to create a conceptual model at the knowledge level (rather than the symbol level) is an important advance. An extensive bibliography is appended.
Convergence of AI programming and software engineering
Authors: Rawlings C. J.
Published: July 2009

To summarize,Software engineering Environmentsprovides a useful overview of recent progress in software engineering tools and methods; particularly from a UK perspective. The majority of the contributions are well-written but the general paucity of introductory material and the level of technical detail in some chapters might prove daunting to readers unfamiliar with software engineering. It would have been helpful if the editor had made more effort to draw out the common themes and important issues; either by linking sections of the book with short discussion (as Hawley did forArtificial Intelligence Programming Environments) which helps to smooth over the changes in prose style or by cross-referencing points made by different authors. As it stands the result is rather a peculiar hybrid between a conference proceedings and a multi-author text book.
Computational reflection
Authors: Maes Pattie
Published: July 2009

Computational reflection is the activity performed by a computational System when reasoning about (and by that possibly affecting) itself. This paper presents an introduction to computational reflection (thereafter called reflection). A definition of reflection is presented, its utility for knowledge engineering is discussed and architectures of languages that support it are studied. Examples of such procedural, logic-based, rule-based and object-oriented languages are presented. The paper elaborates on the design of these languages and the reflective functionality that results, elucidating concepts such as procedural reflection, declarative reflection, theory relativity of reflection, etc. The paper concludes with an assessment of outstanding problems and future developments in the area.
The treatment of uncertainty in AI: Is there a better vantage point?
Authors: Saffiotti Alessandro
Published: July 2009

The paper I wrote for the Knowledge Engineering Review was intended primarily to give a balanced review of different techniques developed in (or imported into) Artificial Intelligence to deal with uncertain knowledge.
Expert systems—the second wave
Authors: Johnson Tim , Hewett Julian , Guilfoyle Christine , Jeffcoate Judith
Published: July 2009

The expert systems business has been through a terrible period in 1987–88. In the USA, the “Gang of Four”—the new venture software companies which once led the industry—have all run into losses and cut back staff more or less severely. Symbolics, whose high priced Lisp workstations have made it the biggest single company in artificial intelligence (AI), has hit an equally dramatic reversal of fortunes.
Generic tasks as building blocks for knowledge-based systems: the diagnosis and routine design examples
Authors: Chandrasekaran B.
Published: July 2009

The level of abstraction of much of the work in knowledge-based systems (the rule, frame, logic level) is too low to provide a rich enough vocabulary for knowledge and control. I provide an overview of a framework called the Generic Task approach that proposes that knowledge systems should be built out of building blocks, each of which is appropriate for a basic type of problem solving. Each generic task uses forms of knowledge and control strategies that are characteristic to it, and are in general conceptually closer to domain knowledge. This facilitates knowledge acquisition and can produce a more perspicuous explanation of problem solving. The relationship of the constructs at the generic task level to the rule-frame level is analogous to that between high-level programming languages and assembly languages in computer science. I describe a set of generic tasks that have been found particularly useful in constructing diagnostic, design and planning systems. In particular, I describe two tools, CSRL and DSPL, that are useful for building classification-based diagnostic systems and skeletal planning systems respectively, and a high level toolbox that is under construction called the Generic Task toolbox.
An answer to commentators on the paper “Generic tasks as building blocks for knowledge-based systems: the diagnosis and routine design examples”
Authors: Chandrasekaran B.
Published: July 2009

I thank the commentators for their time, and generally positive remarks on the promise of the task-specific approach, in particular the generic task (GT) proposal.

Johnson and Zualkernan would like a methodology for mapping domain knowledge onto one or more generic tasks so as to solve problems efficiently. This stage of problem and domain analysis in which the kind of reasoning that goes on needs to be analysed in a vocabulary of generic tasks is very important, and in our laboratory we identify this as the epistemic analysis stage. For specific classes of problems we have developed guidelines on how to perform this mapping. For example, Bylander and Smith (Bylander and Smith, 1985) describe a set of criteria and guidelines for mapping medical knowledge into CSRL-like structures for diagnostic reasoning. Similarly Brown (1984) describes criteria for mapping design knowledge into DSPL-like structures.
Graphical interfaces for knowledge engineering: an overview of relevant literature
Authors: Jones Sara
Published: July 2009

Literature relevant to the design and development of graphical interfaces for knowledge-based systems is briefly reviewed and discussed. The efficiency of human-computer interaction depends to a large extent on the degree to which the human-machine interface can answer the user's cognitive needs and accurately support his or her natural cognitive processes and structures. Graphical interfaces can often be particularly suitable in this respect, especially in cases where the user's “natural idiom” is graphical. Illustrated examples are given of the way in which graphical interfaces have successfully been used in various fields with particular emphasis on their use in the field of knowledge-based systems. The paper ends with a brief discussion of possible future developments in the field of knowledge-based system interfaces and of the role that graphics might play in such developments.
Default non-monotonic logic
Authors: Mott Peter
Published: July 2009

This paper is a review of certain non-monotonic logics, which I call default non-monotonic logics. These are logics which exploit failure to prove. How each logic uses this basic idea is explained, and examples given. The emphasis is on leading ideas explained through examples: technical detail is avoided. Four non-monotonic logics are discussed: Reiter's default logic, McCarthy's circumscription, McDermott's modal non-monotonic logic, and Clarks's completed database. The first two are treated in some detail. The recent Hanks-McDermott criticism of non-monotonic logic is discussed, and some conclusions drawn about the prospects for non-monotonic logic. Recommendations for further reading are given.
Computer architectures for logic-oriented data/knowledge bases
Authors: Shin Donghoon , Berra P. Bruce
Published: July 2009

Knowledge base management systems (KBMS) are designed to efficiently retrieve and manipulate large shared knowledge bases. A significant subclass of KBMS consisting of a combination of logic programming and database is often called a logic oriented knowledge base system (LOKBS). These systems must possess considerable processing and I/O capabilities so many approaches have been taken to the improvement of their performance. In this paper we review the current performance enhancing hardware approaches for LOKBS. We include parallelism, both in processing and I/O, algorithms, caching, and physical data organizations.
Interfacing a knowledge-based system to a large database
Authors: Gray P. M. D. , Archibald I. G. , Lunn K.
Published: July 2009

This paper describes the interfacing problem that arose in a Product Formulation expert system written in LISP that had to be interfaced to data in a relational database running on a separate mainframe computer. It surveys the different forms of coupling that are possible and emphasizes the advantages of tight navigational coupling over the more popular set-based coupling. It describes how Prolog was used to overcome the interfacing problems and to provide a customized front end to an end user, based on a navigational interface. It reviews the techniques of using Prolog and the likely obstacles, together with a look forward to databases using Frames or Objects.
Deductive database theories
Authors: Grant John , Minker Jack
Published: July 2009

This paper surveys a variety of deductive database theories. Such theories differ from one another in the set of axioms and metarules that they allow and use. The following theories are discussed: relational, Horn, and stratified in the text; protected, disjunctive, typed, extended Horn, and normal in the appendix. Connections with programming in terms of the declarative, fixpoint, and procedural semantics are explained. Negation is treated in several different ways: closed world, completed database, and negation as failure. For each theory examples are given and implementation issues are considered.
A Comparative Exploration of Concurrent Logic Languages
Authors: Ringwood G. A.
Published: July 2009

The execution model of Prolog, the first popular language based on Horn Clauses, was designed for efficient evaluation on von Neumann architectures. An alternative process model of execution, better suited for parallel evaluation and reactive programming, has given rise to a new class of languages based on Horn Clause logic, concurrent logic languages. There appears to be a profusion of languages which claim to fall into this class and it is difficult for an initiate to appreciate why each is the way it is. One notable member of this class, FGHC, forms the cornerstone of the Japanese 5th Generation Initiative. Fortunately, the seemingly exponential growth in these languages is only an illusion. A finite number of synchronization mechanisms arise from attempting (or sometimes not attempting) to control two principle synchronization difficulties: the premature binding problem and the binding conflict problem. Suitable combinations of these synchronization mechanisms reproduce the languages of this family. A background knowledge of Prolog is assumed and some familiarity with the difficulties encountered in concurrency would be advantageous.
Planning and decision theory
Authors: Haddawy Peter , Rendell Larry
Published: July 2009

Research on planning in AI can be separated into the two major areas: plan generation and plan representation. Most AI planners to date have been based on the STRIPS planning representation. This representation has a number of limitations. Much recent work in plan representation has addressed these limitations. It was shown that Decision Theory can be used to remove a number of the limitations. Furthermore, the decision theoretic framework provides a precise definition of rational behaviour. There remain open questions within decision theory regarding belief revision and causality. It should be noted that these problems are not artifacts of the representation. Rather they arise because the rich representation allows their formulation. Some work integrating AI and decision theoretic approaches to planning has been done but this remains a largely untouched research area.

We see two main avenues for fruitful research. First, the straightforward decision theoretic formulation of planning is computationally impractical. Techniques need to be developed to do efficient decision theoretic planning. Work in AI plan generation has exploited information contained the structure of qualitative representations to guide efficient plan construction. These techniques should be applied to decision theoretic representations as well. Second, AI has developed many representations that allow useful structuring of knowledge about the world. Decision Theory has concentrated on representing beliefs and desires. Integration of AI and decision theoretic representations would yield powerful representation languages. Some of the benefits of such work can already be seen in the research combining temporal and decision theoretic representations.
Medical AI systems as appropriate technology for developing countries
Authors: King Kathleen , Beck Howard
Published: July 2009

Expert systems technology has been around for a long time, becoming increasingly easy to use, inexpensive and reliable in recent years. It would seem to provide an ideal vehicle for the dissemination of expertise in developing countries, particularly in the field of medicine, which was the focus of much early work in diagnostic systems. Despite the apparent match of a real problem and a credible solution, however, remarkably few AI systems for medicine in developing countries have been researched, designed and implemented. This paper addresses why this might be the case, reviews some of the extant systems and explores some of the design issues. Particular emphasis is placed on the question of “Appropriate Technology”. Various criteria for Appropriate Technology are explored, and an optimal set used to guide principles of design. It is argued that medical AI systems can satisfy these criteria, provided that sufficient care is taken in their design for the country of application.
Lighthill 17 years on
Authors: Lam Martin
Published: July 2009

It is a common Establishment practice in the UK to ask an expert, recognized for his/her sound views, to give a view on controversial matters of public interest. There are recent examples in such varied fields as accounting standards, export credits, and microgravity. Administrations—for all the current fashion for “built-in evaluation”—have no time or inclination to take a look backwards at these autographs. In this paper the author, who was a civil servant, and has worked for ten years as a consultant, including two years in the European Commission, considers, with the help of hindsight, the Lighthill Report of 1972 on AI.

This review implies making judgements about the progress of AI which cannot help being contentious. First, there will be disagreements about judgements, or even assertions—the author cannot claim authority over the whole field, unless as a voyeur; there may be important developments he has failed to take account of. Second, there will be arguments that Lighthill was to an extent self-fulfilling—that is, that there would have been more advance if some aspects of AI had not been checked at his advice. Third, it will be said that it takes time to work up a new computational concept—or any other new thing.

However, whatever the reservations, the main conclusion put forward is that there was an element of over-optimism about AI in general which Lighthill had reason to castigate. In directing his comments to the utility of AI in specific fields Lighthill got some things wrong, but, on balance—which is not easy to strike—probably more things right than wrong.

Extrapolating to the present day the writer questions whether, in the UK after Alvey, and not least in Japan, resources are not being expended on AI objectives which are intellectually stimulating but remain too far from the application's sharp end; and therefore whether there is still not too much “jam tomorrow” about AI. Whether or not this questioning is judged to be wrongheaded, perhaps it will prove useful to have stirred discussion on the subject.
Constraint logic programming
Authors: Van Hentenryck Pascal
Published: July 2009

Constraint logic programming (CLP) is a generalization of logic programming (LP) where unification, the basic operation of LP languages, is replaced by constraint handling in a constraint system. The resulting languages combine the advantages of LP (declarative semantics, nondeterminism, relational form) with the efficiency of constraint-solving algorithms. For some classes of combinatorial search problems, they shorten the development time significantly while preserving most of the efficiency of imperative languages. This paper surveys this new class of programming languages from their underlying theory, to their constraint systems, and to their applications to combinatorial problems.
Functional programming languages for AI problem solving
Authors: Bradley Eleanor
Published: July 2009

Many problem domains exhibit inherent parallelism, and parallel systems which capture and exploit this can be used to look for efficient solutions to AI problems. Functional programming languages are expected to be efficiently realisable on fifth generation hardware. A rational reconstruction of AI programming paradigms is used to investigate the programmability and performance of functional languages in this particular area.

Three languages—Standard ML, Hope+ and Miranda—are used in the rational reconstruction, each language being used to implement three applications. Results indicate that functional programming languages have become much more useable in recent years, and have the potential to become useful tools in AI problem solving. A brief annotated bibliography of texts which covers the introduction to, theory and implementation issues of, functional programming languages, is included.
Principles of induction and approaches to attribute based induction
Authors: Kalkanis G. , Conroy G. V.
Published: July 2009

This paper presents a survey of machine induction, studied mainly from the field of artificial intelligence, but also from the fields of pattern recognition and cognitive psychology. The paper consists of two parts: Part I discusses the basic principles and features of the machine induction process; Part II uses these principles and features to review and criticize the major supervised attribute-based induction methods. Attribute-based induction has been chosen because it is the most commonly used inductive approach in the development of expert systems and pattern recognition models.
Knowledge-based systems, Lisp, and very high level implementation languages
Authors: Sandewall Eric
Published: July 2009

It is usually agreed that programming languages for implementing (other) programming languages, or ‘implementation languages’, should be simple low-level languages which are close to the machine code and to the operating system. In this paper it is argued that a very high level implementation language is a good idea, of particular importance for knowledge-based systems, and that Lisp (as a language and as a system) is very well suited to be a very high level implementation language. The significance of special-purpose programming languages is also discussed, and the requirements that they have for a very high level implementation language are considered.
Trends in applying abstract interpretation
Authors: Bowles Andrew
Published: July 2009

Abstract interpretation is a principled approach to inferring properties of a program's execution by simulating that execution using an interpreter which computes over some abstraction of the program's usual, concrete domain, and which collects the information of interest during the execution. Abstract interpretation has been used as the basis of research in logic and functional programming, particularly in applications concerned with compiler optimizations. However, abstract interpretation has the potential to be used in other applications, such as debugging or verification of programs. In this paper we review the use of abstract interpretation to both compiler optimizations and to other applications, attempting to give a flavour of the kind of information it is possible to infer and some of the issues involved
Innovative design Systems, where are we and where do we go from here? Part I: Design by association
Authors: Navin Chandra D.
Published: July 2009

Designing is a skill central to many human tasks. Designers are constantly producing newer and better artifacts, generating innovative solutions to problems in our world. This paper looks at innovation, and research that is aimed at developing theories and methodologies for innovative design. We view design as a process of association and exploration. These two approaches are fundamental to innovation. The aim of exploration is to generate a large variety of design alternatives by breaking away from the norms by looking in unlikely places, and by relaxing binding constraints. Exploration exposes possibilities that would not normally hâve been considered, possibilities that may serendipitously lead to innovative solutions. Association, on the other hand, attempts to exploit previous design experiences in a new design context. This is donc by recognizing useful analogies that can help in synthesizing parts of a design, recognizing unforeseen problems, and discovering opportunities. This paper is the first part of a two-part paper that presents and discusses a variety of association and exploration methods. This part examines association-based techniques, some of which have been used in actual design Systems, and others that point to the solution of some open questions in design research. We develop these ideas by examining connections between design research and other disciplines such as cognitive psychology, artificial intelligence, the history of science, and the creativity literature.