bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
No evidence for increased self‐reported cognitive failure in Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes: a cross‐sectional study
Authors: Wessels A. M. , Pouwer F. , Geelhoed‐Duijvestijn P. H. L. M. , Snel M. , Kostense P. J. , Scheltens P. , Heine R. J. , Snoek F.J.
Published: April 2007

Aims  Mild cognitive deficits have been determined in both types of diabetes using neurocognitive tests. Little is known about the degree to which patients complain about their cognitive functioning. This study set out to investigate the magnitude and correlates of self‐reported cognitive failure in adult out‐patients with Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes.

Methods  Subjective cognitive functioning was measured in 187 diabetic patients using the Cognitive Failures Questionnaire (CFQ). Demographic and clinical characteristics were retrieved from the medical records. The Patient Health Questionnaire 9 items (PHQ‐9) was self‐administered along with the CFQ to correct for the confounding effect of depression.

Results  Analyses were based on 55 patients with Type 1 diabetes and 100 patients with Type 2 diabetes. No difference in mean CFQ score was observed between Type 1 and Type 2 diabetic patients or between Type 1 diabetic patients and healthy control subjects. Female patients with Type 2 diabetes reported significantly fewer cognitive complaints compared with female healthy control subjects. None of the demographic variables and diabetes‐related complications was associated with subjective cognitive complaints. A strong positive association was found between depression symptomatology and frequency of self‐reported cognitive failure.

Conclusions  Our study could not confirm elevated subjective cognitive complaints in a group of Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes patients, as might be expected given the observed elevated rates of mild cognitive dysfunction in patients with diabetes. Self‐reported cognitive failure appears largely determined by depressive symptomatology. Therefore, affective status should be included in any cognitive assessment procedure.
AN ARTICLE FROM THEREVUE DES DEUX MONDES: EDCARD MILHAUD, OR THE INJECTION OF WEALTH
Authors: BOURDET Claude
Published: April 2007

“What will a monkey do when he has too many cocoanuts? Will he starve to death? Will he let his baby monkeys grow up malformed and stunted, because he has gathered too many cocoanuts?”
DR G. FAUQUET'S preface TO SIGNOR MANLIO SANCISI'S BOOK
Authors: FAUQUET G.
Published: April 2007

The Preface which Dr G. Fauquet, Ex‐director or the Co‐operative Section of the International Labour Office, well‐known theorist of Co‐operation, and author of “The Co‐operative Sector”, has written for Signor Manlio Sancisi's book contains a wide range of vastly interesting observations, not only about this work but also upon the various co‐operative forms of organisation of labour, and upon the relationships existing between such forms of organisation. It therefore gives us great pleasure to be enabled to place the text of this Preface before the readers of the “Annals”. — Edg. M.
Cooperative Supply of Housing Materials and Equipment
Authors: Christensen Aage
Published: April 2007

“To encourage the regular exchange of information, technicians and technical personnel between the Societies or Federations of the different countries; also whenever possible to promote collaboration between the Housing, Consumers’and Producers’Cooperative organisations with regard to financing and to joint production of building materials.”
The Bank of France and the control and supervision of credit
Authors: Fournier H.
Published: April 2007

SOMMAIRE

Historical background: I. The traditional aspects of the Bank of France's role in the control and supervision of credit. — A. The discount rate. — B. The provision of rediscount facilities. — 1. Acceptability of signatures for discount purposes. — 2. Acceptability of bills for discount. — (a) Period of maturing. — (b) Guarantees required. — (c) The nature of bills. — (i) commercial paper. — (ii) financial bills. — C. Intervention in the money market. — II. The Bank of France and the contral and supervision of credit today: (a) Rates of interest charged. — (b) The selective control of credit. — 1. Authorisation of credit. — 2. Special measures. — (c) The quantitative restriction of creldit. — 1. The use of assets. — (a) Investment in Treasury bonds. — (b) Liquidity ratios. — 2. Regulations concerning the Bank's resources. — (a) Minimum capital. — (b) The fixing of rediscount ceilings by the Rank of France. — Conclusion.
LARGE FIRMS AND PRICE CONTROL
Authors: Knox F.
Published: April 2007

With the increase in the rate of inflation in recent years, most economists have probably come to accept the need for price control, even though they might oppose it in more normal circumstances. However the view is still very wide‐ spread ‐among economists and probably among politicians and the general public – that for an effective system of price control to exist, it is only necessary to control the prices charged by large firms. It is believed that smaller firms will then follow suit, either because they are forced to by the competition of large firms or for some other reason. Recent experience in the U.K. seems to refute this thesis conclusively. It is in the sectors in which small firms predominate that prices rose most rapidly during the two or three years preceding the imposition of price control; this has continued since price control was imposed in November 1972. No explanation of this is attempted, but it is argued that if price control is to be effective it must be extended to all firms irrespective of size. This would raise administrative problems, but it is suggested that these could be dealt with. The character of inflation, like other aspects of the economic situation, can change rapidly. It is possible that with the introduction of the three‐day week in British industry in February 1974 (as a consequence of the miners’strike) and the continued rise in import prices (especially the price of oil) the high profits which characterised the years 1971, 1972 and 1973 in Britain will prove to be temporary. However the basic point remains. During these years, the rise in profits added significantly to the increase in retail prices, and this rise took place not only in sectors where large firms are found but also in sectors characterised by the predominance of small and medium‐size firms.
NON‐CORPORATE SECTOR FINANCE AND FINANCING OF SMALL INDUSTRIES IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES: THE NIGERIAN EXPERIENCE
Authors: Diaku Ikwuakam
Published: April 2007

Abstract

This paper attempts to report the author's findings regarding the role of the non‐corporate sector in providing investment finance for small‐scale industries in Nigeria, through co‐operative efforts.

It specially underlines the role of indigenous social organizations and group relations in solving the economic problems of a developing economy which places emphasis on industrial development.

Though these sources provide short‐term consumption finance, they certainly constitute an inadequate source of long‐term finance for industry in a situation where the importance of small‐scale industry development is officially greatly emphasized, and existing financial institutions are designed to serve only the financial needs of large industrial enterprises.

The role of government in the context of the dilemma of the small‐scale entrepreneur is examined and suggestions made for improvements. The paper reflects what is probably the experience of many developing countries trying to industrialize.
LES STRUCTURES COOPÉRATIVES SÉNÉGALAISES FACE AUX MUTATIONS INSTITUTIONNELLES
Authors: GAYE Matar
Published: April 2007

Le cadre institutionnel dans lequel Bvoluent les structures co‐operatives sbnkgalaises a connu de profondes mutations au cows de ces dernihres annees. La reforme du systeme s'est traduite par la mise en place de nouvelles entites qui devront fonctionner de plus en plus comme des entreprises privbes. Toutefois, le niveau actuel des resources humaines, financiiires et materielles ne leur permet pas encore d'asseoir une reelle autonomie.

La presence de nouveaux concurrents encourages par les pouvoirs publics suscite quelques inquietudes chez les dirigeants. Malgre un penchant relativement favorable aux coopbratives, la plupart des adherents simples ne souhaitent pas l'eviction des commerFants prives. Les attitudes des uns e t des autres par rapport a divers aspects de la politique oficielle varient selon leur position dans le systhme.

Avec I'intervention de la Caisse Nationale de Credit Agricole du Senegal (CNCAS) qui vient de s'implanter, le principe des apports personnels tend B marginaliser les plus nkcessiteux. Par ailleurs, le contenu initialement donne au concept fon damental de responsabilisation se trouve profondement modifie.
A COMPARISON OF PERFORMANCE INDICATORS FOR TRAINING AND ENTERPRISE COUNCILS IN THE UK
Authors: CUBBIN John , ZAMANI Hadi
Published: April 2007

ABSTRACT**: The use of performance indicators for the evaluation and comparison of efficiency in service provision in the public and related sectors of the economy is continuously developing. While they often represent a step forward, to the extent that they focus attention on the objectives of the organization in question, it is frequently suspected that they fail to take into account non‐controllable environmental factors. To do so requires multivariate techniques of analysis. This paper compares the results of three such methods with the raw performance indicators. It confirms the importance of non‐controllable factors but also shows that different multivariate methods give results which do not always agree. Understanding the properties of different approaches is essential in drawing conclusions about performance.
THE ORGANIZING OF PEASANT SHOPS IN CENTRAL AMERICA
Authors: NIELSEN Kjeld B.
Published: April 2007

ABSTRACT: A case study is presented of the promotion by the Catholic Church of agricultural service cooperatives, called peasant shops, in a rural Honduran municipality. The purpose of this paper is then to identify factors which determine their success. Three external factors were identified: the justification for the organizations being provided by a local social agent; access to training and on‐going follow‐up; and access to commercial transactions with economies of scale. The following main internal factors were: the participation of local leaders in positions of trust within the organization of the social agent; high member contributions, with a view to securing high member responsibility; and high interest rates on member contributions to attract high member contributions.
EXPERIENCE OF PRIVATIZATION IN EASTERN GERMANY*
Authors: BREMEIER Wolfram
Published: April 2007

ABSTRACT**: The analysis of the experience of privatization in Eastern Germany shows that the boundaries between the private and public sectors will become increasingly blurred, with the public sector becoming more like the private sector. One may also expect that employment will fall and productivity greatly increase. The legislature's urge to regulate everything will ultimately subside but the public sector will continue to be of vital importance for the economy as a whole. A modernized public sector will be able to deploy its services to make an important contribution to economic growth and employment.
PUBLIC ENTERPRISES IN TURKEY*
Authors: AKTAN Coskun Can
Published: April 2007

ABSTRACT: Public enterprises have played a distinct role in promoting economic development and have been instrumental in initiating the industrialization of Turkey, and in facilitating its balanced regional development, especially during the early stages of its economic development. However, since the late 1960s, public enterprises have been a drag on the economic performance of the country because of the economic problems they have caused. In response to the problems associated with public enterprises, privatization entered the political arena in the early 1980s. The Turkish government has now adopted a timetable to privatize the public enterprises. In this paper, an attempt is made to investigate the place and the weight of the public enterprises and their problems in the Turkish economy.
On the adequacy of predicate circumscription for closed‐world reasoning
Authors: Etherington David W. , Mercer Robert E. , Reiter Raymond
Published: April 2007

We focus on McCarthy's method of predicate circumscription in order to establish various results about its consistency, and about its ability to conjecture new information. A basic result is that predicate circumscription cannot account for the standard kinds of default reasoning. Another is that predicate circumscription yields no new information about the equality predicate. This has important consequences for the unique names and domain closure assumptions.
Recovering from execution errors in SIPE
Authors: Wilkins David E.
Published: April 2007

In real‐world domains (e.g., a mobile robot environment), things do not always proceed as planned, so it is important to develop better execution‐monitoring techniques and replanning capabilities. This paper describes these capabilities in the SIPE (System for Interactive Planning and Execution Monitoring) planning system. The motivation behind SIPE is to place enough limitations on the representation so that planning can be done efficiently, while retaining sufficient power to still be useful. This work assumes that new information given to the execution monitor is in the form of predicates, thus avoiding the difficult problem of how to generate these predicates from information provided by sensors.

The replanning module presented here takes advantage of the rich structure of SIPE plans and is intimately connected with the planner, which can be called as a subroutine. This allows the use of SIPE's capabilities to determine efficiently how unexpected events affect the plan being executed and, in many cases, to retain most of the original plan by making changes in it to avoid problems caused by these unexpected events. SIPE is also capable of shortening the original plan when serendipitous events occur. A general set of replanning actions is presented along with a general replanning capability that has been implemented by using these actions.
Hierarchical arc consistency: exploiting structured domains in constraint satisfaction problems
Authors: Mackworth Alan K. , Mulder Jan A. , Havens William S.
Published: April 2007

Constraint satisfaction problems can be solved by network consistency algorithms that eliminate local inconsistencies before constructing global solutions. We describe a new algorithm that is useful when the variable domains can be structured hierarchically into recursive subsets with common properties and common relationships to subsets of the domain values for related variables. The algorithm, HAC, uses a technique known as hierarchical arc consistency. Its performance is analyzed theoretically and the conditions under which it is an improvement are outlined. The use of HAC in a program for understanding sketch maps, Mapsee3, is briefly discussed and experimental results consistent with the theory are reported.
The role of native grammars in correcting errors in second language learning
Authors: Schuster Ethel
Published: April 2007

This paper describes VP2, a system that has been implemented to tutor nonnative speakers in English. This system differs from many tutoring systems by employing an explicit grammar of its user's native language. This grammar enables VP2 to customize its responses by addressing problems due to interference of the native language. The system focuses on the acquisition of English verb‐particle and verb‐prepositional phrase constructions. Its correction strategy is based upon comparison of the native language grammar with an English grammar. VP2 is a modular system: its grammar of a user's native language can easily be replaced by a grammar of another language. The problems and solutions presented in this paper are related to the more general question of how modelling previous knowledge facilitates instruction in a new skill.
An architecture for a self‐improving instructional planner for intelligent tutoring systems
Authors: Macmillan Stuart A. , Sleeman Derek H.
Published: April 2007

Machine instructional planners use changing and uncertain data to incrementally configure plans and control the execution and dynamic refinement of these plans. Current instructional planners cannot adequately plan, replan, and monitor the delivery of instruction. This is due in part to the fact that current instructional planners are incapable of planning in a global context, developing competing plans in parallel, monitoring their planning behavior, and dynamically adapting their control behavior. In response to these and other deficiencies of instructional planners a generic system architecture based on the blackboard model was implemented. This self‐improving instructional planner (SUP) dynamically creates instructional plans, requests execution of these plans, replans, and improves its planning behavior based on a student's responses to tutoring. Global planning was facilitated by explicitly representing decisions about past, current, and future plans on a global data structure called the plan blackboard. Planning in multiple worlds is facilitated by labeling plan decisions by the context in which they were generated. Plan monitoring was implemented as a set of monitoring knowledge sources. The flexible control capability for instructional planner was adapted from the blackboard architecture BB1. The explicit control structure of SUP enabled complex and flexible planning behavior while maintaining a simple planning architecture.
Representing complex knowledge in an intelligent machine tutor
Authors: Woolf Beverly P.
Published: April 2007

Knowledge representation remains a serious issue for researchers of intelligent tutoring systems. Two areas of knowledge representation that are particularly difficult are domain and teaching knowledge. This article discusses and gives example solutions to these knowledge engineering issues and also addresses issues that relate to up‐scaling existing intelligent tutoring technology to practical levels so that tutoring systems can be brought into the real world.
Expressiveness and tractability in knowledge representation and reasoning1
Authors: Levesque Hector J. , Brachman Ronald J.
Published: April 2007

A fundamental computational limit on automated reasoning and its effect on knowledge representation is examined. Basically, the problem is that it can be more difficult to reason correctly with one representational language than with another and, moreover, that this difficulty increases dramatically as the expressive power of the language increases. This leads to a tradeoff between the expressiveness of a representational language and its computational tractability. Here we show that this tradeoff can be seen to underlie the differences among a number of existing representational formalisms, in addition to motivating many of the current research issues in knowledge representation.
Defeat among arguments: a system of defeasible inference
Authors: Loui R. P.
Published: April 2007

This paper presents a system of nonmonotonic reasoning with defeasible rules. The advantage of such a system is that many multiple extension problems can be solved without additional explicit knowledge; ordering competing extensions can be done in a natural and defeasible way, via syntactic considerations. The objectives closely resemble Poole's objectives.

But the logic is different from Poole's. The most important difference is that this system allows the kind of chaining that many other nonmonotonic systems allow. Also, the form in which the inference system is presented is quite unusual. It mimics an established system of inductive logic, and it treats defeat in the way of the epistemologist‐philosophers.

The contributions are both of content and of form: (content) the kinds of defeat that are considered, and (form) the way in which defeat is treated in the rules of inference.
The consistency of syntactical treatments of knowledge1 (How to compile quantificational modal logics into classical FOL)
Authors: Rivières Jim des , Levesque Hector J.
Published: April 2007

The relative expressive power of a sentential operator □α is compared to that of a syntactical predicateL(‘α’) in the setting of first‐order logics. Despite well‐known results by Montague and by Thomason that claim otherwise, any of the so‐called “modal” logics of knowledge and belief can be compiled into classical first‐order logics that have a corresponding predicate on sentences. Moreover, through the use of a partial truth predicate, the standard modal axiom schemata can be translated into single sentences, making it possible to use conventional first‐order logic theorem provers to directly derive results in a wide class of modal logics.
Comments on Peter Cheeseman's An inquiry into computer understanding
Authors: Aleliunas Romas
Published: April 2007

I agree that probability in some, possibly disguised, form is a necessary component of practical inference. Our goal, therefore, must be to find how to make probability practical. Normatively motivated thinking (which includes textbook Bayesianism) is, however, mute on two topics that are crucial to practicality: the choice of a limited but useful set of initial hypotheses and the choice of decision rules. The best way of reducing the computational demands of probability is to use the smallest and simplest set of hypotheses, and the crudest decision rules that are compatible with your application's goals. Learning how to make these choices is an empirical, not a normative, endeavour.
A glance at artificial intelligence in France: editorial
Authors: Saint‐Dizier Patrick
Published: April 2007

This short text introduces this special issue of Computational Intelligence on artificial intelligence in France. After a brief presentation of the structure and the research activities in artificial intelligence in France, we introduce the papers enclosed herein.
Towards an analyzer (parser) in a machine translation system based on ideas from expert systems
Authors: Zaharin Yusoff
Published: April 2007

GETA (Groupe d'études pour la traduction automatique) is a research team working basically in the domain of machine translation. GETA's software system, ARIANE‐78, has been tested over various pairs of relatively unrelated languages. Being a product of the late seventies, the system misses out on some of the artificial intelligence technology, particularly that of the eighties. Nevertheless, GETA carries out some research related to artificial intelligence within a general effort to bring improvements to the current system. This paper reports on an effort to embed such work within the framework of an entirely new system based on ideas from expert systems, significantly departing from the methodology of the current system (and that of other currently implemented machine translation systems). The proposed architecture aims for total modularity and flexibility and some degree of intelligence.
Localized event‐based reasoning for multiagent domain1
Authors: Lansky Amy L.
Published: April 2007

This paper presents the GEM concurrency model and GEMPLAN, a multiagent planner based on this model. Unlike standard state‐based AI representations, GEM is unique in its explicit emphasis on events and domain structure. In particular, a world domain is modeled as a set of regions composed of interrelated events. Event‐based temporal‐logic constraints are then associated with each region to delimit legal domain behavior. The GEMPLAN planner directly reflects this emphasis on domain structure and constraints. It can be viewed as a general‐purpose constraint satisfaction facility which constructs a network of interrelated events (a “plan”) that is subdivided into regions (“subplans”), satisfies all applicable regional constraints, and also achieves some stated goal.

GEMPLAN extends and generalizes previous planning architectures in the range of constraint forms it handles and in the flexibility of its constraint satisfaction search strategy. One critical aspect of our work has been an emphasis on localized reasoning—techniques that make explicit use of domain structure. For example, GEM localizes the applicability of domain constraints and imposes additional “locality constraints” on the basis of domain structure. Together, constraint localization and locality constraints provide semantic information that can be used to alleviate several aspects of the frame problem for multiagent domains. The GEMPLAN planner reflects the use of locality by subdividing its constraint satisfaction search space into regional planning search spaces. Utilizing constraint and property localization, GEMPLAN can pinpoint and rectify interactions among these regional search spaces, thus reducing the burden of “interaction analysis” ubiquitous to most planning systems. Because GEMPLAN is specifically geared towards parallel, multiagent domains, we believe that its natural application areas will include scheduling and other forms of organizational coordination.
Exploiting temporal coherence in nonlinear plan construction
Authors: Drummond Mark , Currie Ken
Published: April 2007

Correct conventional nonlinear planners operate in accordance with Chapman's modal truth criterion (MTC). The MTC characterizes the conditions under which an assertion will be true at a point in a nonlinear plan. However, the MTC is not all one requires in order to build a realistic planning system: it merely sanctions the use of a number of plan modifications in order to achieve each assertion in a developing plan. The number of modifications that can be made is usually very large. To avoid breadth‐first search a planner must have some idea of which plan modification to consider. We describe a domain‐independent search heuristic called temporal coherence, which helps guide the search through the space of partial plans defined by the MTC. Temporal coherence works by suggesting certain orderings of goal achievement as more appealing than others, and thus by finding bindings for plan variables consistent with the planner's overall goals. Our experience with a real nonlinear planner has highlighted the need for such a heuristic. In this paper, we give an example planning problem and use it to illustrate how temporal coherence can speed the search for an acceptable plan. We also prove that if a solution exists in the partial plan search space defined by the MTC, then there exists a path to that solution which is sanctioned by temporal coherence.
Compiling general linear recursions by variable connection graph analysis
Authors: Han Jiawei
Published: April 2007

Compilation is a powerful preprocessing technique in the processing of recursions in knowledge‐based systems. This paper develops a method of compiling and optimizing complex function‐free linear recursions using a variable connection graph, the V‐graph. It shows that a function‐free recursion consisting of a linear recursive rule and one or more nonrecursive rules can be compiled to (1) a bounded recursion, in which recursion can be eliminated from the program, or (2) an n‐chain recursion, whose compiled formula consists of one chain, when n= 1, or n synchronized compiled chains, when n > 1. The study is based on a classification of linear recursions and a study of the compilation results of each class. Using the variable connection graph, linear recursions are classified into six classes: acyclic paths, unit cycles, uniform cycles, nonuniform cycles, connected components, and their disjoint mixtures. Recursions in each class share some common properties in compilation. Our study presents an organized picture for the compilation of general function‐free linear recursions. After compilation, the processing of complex linear recursions becomes essentially the processing of primitive n‐chain recursions or bounded recursions to which efficient processing methods are available.
Representing defaults with epistemic concepts
Authors: Konolige Kurt , Myers Karen
Published: April 2007

Reasoning about defaults—implications that typically hold, but which may have exceptions—is an important part of commonsense reasoning. We present some parts of a theory of defaults, concentrating on distinctions between various subtle ways in which defaults can be defeated, and on inferences which seem plausible but which are not correct in all cases. To represent this theory in a formal system, it is natural to use the epistemic concept of self‐belief. We show how to express the theory by a local translation into autoepistemic logic, which contains the requisite epistemic operators.
Knowledge acquisition by incremental learning from problem‐solution pairs
Authors: Matwin Stan , Oppacher Franz , Constant Patrick
Published: April 2007

This paper describes LEW (learning by watching), an implementation of a novel learning technique, and discusses its application to the learning of plans. LEW is a domain‐independent learning system with user‐limited autonomy that is designed to provide robust performance in realistic knowledge acquisition tasks in a variety of domains. It partly automates the knowledge acquisition process for different knowledge types, such as concepts, rules, and plans. The inputs to the system, which we callcues, consist of an environmental component and of pairs containing a problem and its solution. Unlike traditional forms of “learning from examples”, in which the system uses the teacher's answer to improve the result of a prior generalization of an example, LEW treats the problem‐solution or question‐answer instances, i. e., the cues themselves, as the basic units for generalization.
Explicitly biased generalization
Authors: Gordon Diana , Perlis Donald
Published: April 2007

During incremental concept learning from examples, tentative hypotheses are formed and then modified to form new hypotheses. When there is a choice among hypotheses, bias is used to express a preference. Bias may be expressed by the choice of hypothesis language, it may be implemented as an evaluation function for selecting among hypotheses already generated, or it may consist of screening potential hypotheses prior to hypothesis generation. This paper describes the use of the third method. Bias is represented explicitly both as assumptions that reduce the space of potential hypotheses and as procedures for testing these assumptions. There are advantages gained by using explicit assumptions. One advantage is that the assumptions are meta‐level hypotheses that are used to generate future, as well as to select between current, inductive hypotheses. By testing these meta‐level hypotheses, a system gains the power to anticipate the form of future hypotheses. Furthermore, rigorous testing of these meta‐level hypotheses before using them to generate inductive hypotheses avoids consistency checks of the inductive hypotheses. A second advantage of using explicit assumptions is that bias can be tested using a variety of learning methods.
Explanation and prediction: an architecture for default and abductive reasoning
Authors: Poole David
Published: April 2007

Although there are many arguments that logic is an appropriate tool for artificial intelligence, there has been a perceived problem with the monotonicity of classical logic. This paper elaborates on the idea that reasoning should be viewed as theory formation where logic tells us the consequences of our assumptions. The two activities of predicting what is expected to be true and explaining observations are considered in a simple theory formation framework. Properties of each activity are discussed, along with a number of proposals as to what should be predicted or accepted as reasonable explanations. An architecture is proposed to combine explanation and prediction into one coherent framework. Algorithms used to implement the system as well as examples from a running implementation are given.
Use of multilayer networks for the recognition of phonetic features and phonemes
Authors: Bengio Yoshua , De Mori Renato
Published: April 2007

Artificial neural networks capable of doing hard learning offer a new way to undertake automatic speech recognition. The Boltzmann machine algorithm and the error back‐propagation algorithm have been used to perform speaker normalization. Spectral segments are represented by spectral lines. Speaker‐independent recognition of place of articulation for vowels is performed on lines. Performance of the networks is shown to depend on the coding of the input data. Samples were extracted from continuous speech of 38 speakers. The error rate obtained (4.2% error on test set of 72 samples with the Boltzmann machine and 6.9% error with error back‐propagation) is better than that of previous experiments, using the same data, with continuous Hidden Markov Models (7.3% error on test set and 3% error on training set). These experiments are part of an attempt to construct a data‐driven speech recognition system with multiple neural networks specialized to different tasks. Results are also reported on the recognition performance of other trained networks, such as one trained on the E‐set consonants.
Constraint satisfaction algorithms1
Authors: Nadel Bernard A.
Published: April 2007

Constraint satisfaction problems are ubiquitous in artificial intelligence and many algorithms have been developed for their solution. This paper provides a unified survey of some of these, in terms of three classes: (i) tree search, (ii) arc consistency (AC), and (iii) hybrid tree search/arc consistency algorithms. It is shown that several important algorithms, when slightly rearranged, are of the latter hybrid form, but with arc consistency components that do not necessarily achieve full arc consistency at the tree nodes. Accordingly, we define several newpartialAC procedures, AC1/5, AC1/4, AC1/3, and AC½, analogous to the well‐knownfullAC algorithms which Mackworth has called AC1, AC2, and AC3. The fractional suffixes on our AC algorithms are roughly proportional to the degree of partial arc consistency they achieve. Unlike traditional versions, our AC algorithms (full and partial) are presented in a parameterized form to allow them to be embedded efficiently at the nodes of a tree search process. Algorithm complexities are compared empirically, using then‐queens problem and a new version called confusedn‐queens. Gaschnig's Backmarking (a tree search algorithm) and Haralick's Forward Checking (a hybrid algorithm) are found to be the most efficient. For the hybrid algorithms, we find that it pays to do little arc consistency processing at the nodes, incurring more nodes, but sufficiently reducing the work per node so as to obtain less work over the whole tree. The unified view taken here suggests several new algorithms. Preliminary results show one of these to be the best algorithm so far.
Empirical results with conspiracy numbers
Authors: KLINGBEIL NORBERT , SCHAEFFER JONATHAN
Published: April 2007

McAllester's conspiracy numbers algorithm is an exciting new approach to minimax search that builds trees to variable depth without application‐dependent knowledge. The likelihood of the root taking on a value is expressed by its conspiracy number: the minimum number of leaf nodes that must change their value to cause the root to change to that value. This paper describes experiences with the algorithm, using both random and application‐generated trees. Experiments suggest that more emphasis on breadth, rather than depth, can lead to significant performance improvements. New enhancements to the algorithm are capable of solving 41% more problems than McAllester's original proposal.
APACS: a system for the automatic analysis and classification of conceptual patterns
Authors: Chan Keith C. C. , Wong Andrew K. C.
Published: April 2007

Many existing inductive learning systems have been developed under the assumption that the learning tasks are performed in a noise‐free environment. To cope with most real‐world problems, it is important that a learning system be equipped with the capability to handle uncertainty. In this paper, we first identify the various sources of uncertainty that may be encountered in a noisy problem domain. Next, we present a method for the efficient acquisition of classification rules from training instances which may contain inconsistent, incorrect, or missing information. This algorithm consists of three phases: (i) the detection of inherent patterns in a set of noisy training data; (ii) the construction of classification rules based on these patterns; and (iii) the use of these rules to predict the class membership of an object. The method has been implemented in a system known as APACS (automatic pattern analysis and classification system). This system has been tested using both real‐life and simulated data, and its performance is found to be superior to many existing systems in terms of efficiency and classification accuracy. Being able to handle uncertainty in the learning process, the proposed algorithm can be employed for applications in real‐world problem domains involving noisy data.
Feature grammars for semantic analysis
Authors: Schwind Camilla B.
Published: April 2007

In this paper, we present a formalism called feature grammar and its application to several problems of semantic analysis. Our extension concerns the structure of the feature value sets, which can be complex, and the definition of unification, which is dependent on this structure. Moreover, we introduce generation rules for feature symbols in order to determine well‐formed symbols, which form the alphabet of a formal language for natural language analysis.
On the importance of evidence: a response to Halpern
Authors: Cheeseman Peter C.
Published: April 2007

Halperri argues for alternative non‐Bayesian approaches to uncertainty based on problems he perceives in the Bayesian approach. In particular, he argues for a distinction between degrees of belief and statistical statements (based on the concept of random sampling). In this response I show that there is no difference between these two concepts in the Bayesian framework, and that the replacement of variables by constants in probabilistic predicate calculus expressions is valid, despite Halpern's objections. The main reason for his rejection of the simpler approach is that he does not condition his belief statements on the evidence used to form these beliefs, and so gets into trouble when new evidence is received. This failure to properly take evidence into account invalidates most of his other criticisms. While I approve of his call for more formal rigor in representing Bayesian practice, his claim to have provided a semantics is misleading – what he has provided is not operational.
Can AI planners solve practical problems?
Authors: WILKINS DAVID E.
Published: April 2007

While there has been recent interest in research on planning and reasoning about actions, nearly all research results have been theoretical. We know of no previous examples of a planning system that has made a significant impact on a problem of practical importance. One of the primary goals during the development of the SIPE‐2 planning system has been the balancing of efficiency with expressiveness and flexibility. With a major new extension, SIPE‐2 has begun to address practical problems. This paper describes this new extension and the new applications of the planner. One of these applications is the problem of producing products from raw materials on process lines under production and resource constraints. This is a problem of commercial importance and SiPE‐2's application to it is described in some detail.
Using crucial literals to select better theories
Authors: SATTAR ABDUL , GOEBEL RandY
Published: April 2007

When Horn clause theories are combined with integrity constraints to produce potentially refutable theories, Seki and Takeuchi have shown how crucial literals can be used to discriminate two mutually incompatible theories. A literal is crucial with respect to two theories if only one of the two theories supports the derivation of that literal. In other words, actually determining the truth value of the crucial literal will refute one of the two incompatible theories.

This paper presents an integration of the idea of crucial literal with Theorist, a logic‐based system for hypothetical reasoning. Theorist is a goal‐directed nonmonotonic reasoning system that classifies logical formulas as possible hypotheses, facts, and observations. As Theorist uses full clausal logic, it does not require Seki and Takeuchi's notion of integrity constraint to define refutable theories. In attempting to deduce observation sentences, Theorist identifies instances of possible hypotheses as nomological explanations: consistent sets of hypothesis instances required to deduce observations. As multiple and mutually incompatible explanations are possible, the notion of crucial literal provides the basis for proposing experiments that distinguish competing explanations.

We attempt to make three contributions. First, we adapt Seki and Takeuchi's method for Theorist. To do so, we incrementally use crucial literals as experiments, whose results are used to reduce the total number of explanations generated for a given set of observations. Next, we specify an extension which incrementally constructs a table of all possible crucial literals for any pair of theories. This extension is more efficient and provides the user with greater opportunity to conduct experiments to eliminate falsifiable theories. A prototype is implemented in CProlog, and several examples of diagnosis are considered to show its empirical efficiency. Finally, we point out that assumption‐based truth maintenance systems (ATMS), as used in the multiple fault diagnosis system of de Kleer and Williams, are interesting special cases of this more general method of distinguishing explanatory theories.
Logic, probability theory, and artificial intelligence ‐ Part I: the probabilistic foundations of logic
Authors: MORGAN CHARLES G.
Published: April 2007

Many AI researchers have come to be dissatisfied with approaches to their discipline based on formal logic. Various alternatives are often suggested, including probability theory. This paper investigates the intimate connection between probability theory and various logics. We show that probability theory, broadly conceived, may be used as a formal semantics for virtually any monotonic logic. Thus, rather than being seen as competing, it is more appropriate to view formal logics as very special cases of probability theory, usually special cases that are computationally more tractable than the more general theory. Thus, probability theory and logic should be seen as complementary. Viewing probability theory in this abstract way may help to shed light on various recalcitrant problems in AI.

De nombreux chercheurs dans le domaine de l'intelligence artificielle manifestent une certaine insatisfaction vis‐à‐vis certaines approches basées sur la logique formelle. Diverses solutions sont souvent proposées, y compris la théorie des probabilityés. Cet article analyse la relation intime entre la théorie des probabilités et diverses logiques. Il est démontré que la théorie des probabilityés, conçue de manière générale, peut ětre utilisée comme une sémantique formelle pour presque toute logique monotonique. Au lieu de percevoir les logiques formelles comme étant en opposition, il est plus approprié de les considérer comme des cas trés spéciaux de la théorie des probabilityés, habituellement plus traitables au niveau calcul que la théorie plus générate. Par conséquent, la théorie des probabilityés et la logique doivent ětre percues comme des éléments complémentaires. Le fait de considérer la théorie des probabilityés d'une manière abstraite peut contribuer à la compréhension de divers problèmes ardus dans le domaine de l'intelligence artificielle.
A spectrum of logical definitions of model‐based diagnosis1
Authors: CONSOLE LUCA , TORASSO PIETRO
Published: April 2007

In this paper, we analyze the logical definitions of model‐based diagnosis recently presented in the literature, and we propose a unified framework (based on the integration of abductive and consistency‐based reasoning) in which most of such definitions can be captured. This allows us to single out the existence of a spectrum of alternatives in the logical definition of diagnosis. A lot of attention in the paper is devoted to analyzing the differences among the definitions in the spectrum. In particular, we show that the definitions can be compared on the basis of their restrictive‐ness and we relate such a restrictiveness with the completeness of the model of the system to be diagnosed.

Dans cet article, les auteurs analysent les définitions logiques de diagnostics basés sur un modèle dont il a été question récemment dans certains ouvrages. Ils proposent un cadre unifié (basé sur l'intégration du raisonnement abductif et du raisonnement basé sur la consistance) à l'interieur duquel la plupart de ces définitions peuvent ětre regroupées. Cette particularité permet de mettre en lumière l'existence d'un spectre d'alternatives dans la définition logique du diagnostic. Cet article accorde une attention toute particulière à l'analyse des différences entre les définitions du spectre. En outre, les auteurs démontrent que les définitions peuvent ětre compareées en fonction de leur caractère restrictif, qui est ensuite mis en relation avec la complétude du modèle du système faisant l'objet d'un diagnostic.
Using collocations for language generation1
Authors: Smadja Frank , McKeown Kathleen
Published: April 2007

A large number of wording choices naturally occurring in English sentences cannot be accounted for on semantic or syntactic grounds. They represent arbitrary word usages and are termed collocations. In this paper, we show how collocations can enhance the task of lexical selection in language generation. Previous language generation systems were not able to account for collocations for two reasons: they did not have the lexical information in compiled form and the lexicon formalisms available were not able to handle the variations in collocational knowledge. We describe an implemented generator, Cook, which uses a wide range of collocations to produce sentences in the stock market domain. Cook uses a flexible lexicon containing a range of collocations, from idiomatic phrases to word pairs that were compiled automatically from text corpora using a lexicographic tool, Xtract. We show how Cook is able to merge collocations of various types to produce a wide variety of sentences.
A task‐appropriate hybrid architecture for explanation
Authors: Suthers Daniel D.
Published: April 2007

This paper analyzes how a spectrum of architectural and structural ideas fit together to provide the required functionality for explanation generation. Several information processing tasks involved in the choice and organization of the content of an explanation are identified. These are best modeled by distinct mechanisms; hence a particular class of hybrid planning architectures most clearly reflects the nature of the explanation task. The architecture is exemplified by a description of an implemented explanation planner. Various implications of the architecture are discussed, including a classification of structuring relations based on their sources and roles in planning; the elimination of goal‐posting preconditions from goal refinement operators; and the level at which nondeterminism is handled.