27969393
Least modification principle for case-based reasoning: a software project planning experience
A software project plan is composed of stages of activities and detailed tasks to be performed, and precedence restrictions among them. A project network is very complex and its construction requires a vast amount of field knowledge and experience. To assist the construction of a software project network, we adopt the case-based reasoning approach. However, the software project network may be designed differently depending upon the adopted development methodology and the style of the manager, so full automation of adjusting a past case is almost impossible. Thus, reducing the modification effort to a minimum is very important for enhancing the project planner's performance. In this research, we develop the framework of the Least Modification Principle (LMP) for Case-based Reasoning to solve this kind of problem. LMP is applicable when a reliable estimation of modification effort is possible. To apply the LMP for project network planning, we have selected 17 factors and the values for each factor to specify software projects. The modification effort is estimated based on the syntactic structure of modification rules. The performance of LMP is demonstrated with each of 31 test cases based on the other 30 past cases. We found that the LMP approach can significantly outperform the Ordinary Factor Matching approach.
6969387
Case- and Constraint-Based Project Planning for Apartment Construction
To effectively generate a fast and consistent apartment construction project network, Hyundai Engineering and Construction and Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology developed a case- and constraint-based project-planning expert system for an apartment domain. The system, FAS-TRAK- APT, is inspired by the use of previous cases by a human expert project planner for planning a new project and the modification of these cases by the project planner using his/her knowledge of domain constraints. This large-scale, case-based, and mixed-initiative planning system, integrated with intensive constraint-based adaptation, utilizes semantic-level metaconstraints and human decisions for compensating incomplete cases imbedding specific planning knowledge. The case- and constraint-based architecture inherently supports cross-checking cases with constraints during system development and maintenance. This system has drastically reduced the time and effort required for initial project planning, improved the quality and completeness of the generated plans, and is expected to give the company the competitive advantage in contract bids for new contracts.
7110658
Automatic Rule Generation by the Transformation of Expert's Diagram: LIFT
Abstract To enhance the efficiency of revealing and refining an expert's knowledge, the Expert's Diagram approach is proposed. The Expert's Diagram proposed in this paper is specifically designed for rule-based consulting systems. Using the Expert's Diagram approach, the knowledge acquisition system LIFT is developed, which transforms the Expert's Diagram automatically to rules in the syntax of the shell SKI 2 that is developed for tax consulting-purposes. For the transformation, either the conclusion-directed approach or the condition-directed approach can be applied. The role of LIFT can be generalized to some extent to adapt to the changes in the Expert's Diagram and target shells. According to our experience in the acquisition of Korean corporate tax knowledge, experts could reveal their knowledge effectively using the Expert's Diagram after a short period of training. Thus the rules could be generated automatically by LIFT without the aid of knowledge engineers.
40201784
Case-based modification for optimization agents: AGENT-OPT
For the effective implementation of an inter-organizational supply chain on the Web, many optimization model agents need to be embedded in the distributed software agents. For instance, many suppliers make requests to a delivery scheduler who manages a model warehouse at the e-hub. The scheduler deals with the scheduling of many truckers and each trucker's agent must have its own routing optimization models. Since the formulations in the model warehouse vary depending upon the requirements, it is impossible to formulate all combinations in advance. Therefore, we need a case-based model modification scheme that can generate the required formulation from the semantically specified requirement in the agent communication language.This research deals with the issues of the architecture of an optimization model agent system AGENT-OPT, modeling request language in XML, optimization model representation in semantic-level objects using UNIK-OPT, a method of selecting a base model, an optimization model modification language (OMML), and rule-based modification reasoning. The approach is applied to the delivery scheduling to study the effect of base model selection policies on the modification effort. To determine whether to start with a primitive model, full model, or the most similar model, we experimented with the sensitivity of proximity to the primitive model on 24 cases and discovered the threshold for choosing the most efficient base model.
3175252
Predicate-based caching in mobile clients for con tinuous partial match queries
This paper proposes a cache management scheme for continuous partial match queries in mobile computing systems. Conventional cache management methods for mobile clients are record ID-based ones. However, since the partial match query is a content-based retrieval, the conventional record ID-based approach cannot properly manage the cache consistency. We show the pr edicate- based approach is an effective cache management in mobile environments.
14431473
Two-Phase Barrier: A Synchronization Primitive for Improving the Processor Utilization
Barrier is widely used for synchronization in parallel programs. Since the process arrived earlier than others should wait at the barrier, the total processor utilization decreases. In this paper, to find the sources of the barrier waiting time, parallel programs are executed on the various grain sizes through execution-driven simulations. In simulation studies, we found that even if approximately equal amounts of work are distributed to each processor, all processes may not arrive at a barrier at the same time. The reasons are that the different numbers of cache misses and instructions within in partitioned grains result in the difference in arrival time of processors at the barrier. In this paper, the two-phased barrier is considered to reduce the blind waiting time in the traditional barrier scheme, which can be simply constructed by dividing one specific stage for the synchronization into two stages. On each stage, processes decide their stall or not, which is dependent on the current execution state of grains running on any given processors. Simulation results show that the reduced barrier waiting times attributed to the two-phased barrier contribute to the performance improvement of parallel programs.
17246831
Use of Case-Based Reasoning in the Domain of Building Regulations
In traditional legal decision support systems, it has been regarded as natural to represent statutes in terms of decision rules and to link these to a separate case-based reasoning system for handling precedent. Statutory legal rules used in these systems are formal and prescriptive. Building regulations in Scotland are part of statute law and constitute part of a legal system together with case histories. In recent years, the regulations have been becoming less prescriptive and more emphasis has been put onto the interpretive use of the regulations. In developing a system which can assist domain experts in interpreting the regulations, this trend has presented us with difficulties in employing this traditional approach and has led us to a unified case-based model of the regulations and case histories. In this paper, we first describe the characteristics of the regulations and the activities involved in this domain. Second, we explain the reason why we abandoned the traditional approach. Third, we describe the system which has been developed using this case-based model.
9935268
Case and Constraint-Based Apartment Construction Project Planning System: FASTrak-APT
To effectively generate a fast and consistent apartment construction project network, Hyundai and KAIST have developed a case and constraint based project planning expert system for apartment domain, FASTrak-APT, inspired by the fact that human expert project planner uses previous cases for planning a new project and modifies them using her/his knowledge on domain constraints. This largescale, case based and mixed-initiative planning system integrated with intensive constraint-based adaptation utilizes semantic level meta-constraints and human decisions for compensating incomplete cases imbedding specific planning knowledge. The case and constraint based architecture inherently supports cross-checking cases with constraints during the system development and maintenance. This system has drastically reduced the time and effort required for initial project planning, improved the quality and completeness of the generated plans, and is expected to give the company the competitive advantage in contract bids for new contracts.
3161617
Isomorphism Classes of Concrete Graph Coverings
Hofmeister introduced the notion of a concrete (resp., concrete regular) covering of a graph G and gave formulas for enumerating the isomorphism classes of concrete (resp., concrete regular) coverings of G [Ars Combin., 32 (1991), pp. 121--127; SIAM J. Discrete Math., 8 (1995), pp. 51--61]. In this paper, we show that the number of the isomorphism classes of n-fold concrete (resp., concrete regular) coverings of G is equal to that of the isomorphism classes of n-fold (resp., regular) coverings of a new graph, the join $G+\infty$ of G and an extra vertex $\infty$. As a consequence, we can enumerate the isomorphism classes of concrete (resp., concrete regular) coverings of a graph by using known formulas for enumerating the isomorphism classes of coverings (resp., regular coverings) of a graph.