Rozprawy doktorskie na temat „Expert”

Face à la crise de la justice, le législateur a toujours réagi en modifiant les codes, mais l’analyse économique du procès montre l’insuffisance des reformes de procédure. En effet, les buts principalement poursuivis par le législateur (réduction de la demande de justice et accélération du procès) moyennant le changement des règles du jeu sont souvent méconnus en raison, entre autres, du comportement stratégique des acteurs du procès.Le seul domaine qui laisse apercevoir des potentialités encore inexploitées est celui de la spécialisation du juge ; mais la spécialisation, à la fois juridique et épistémique, rencontre une forte résistance culturelle, probablement liée à l’image – sociologique et juridique – du juge, qui s’est construite et consolidée au fil du temps. C’est l’image d’un surhomme à l’abri des passions et des préjugés cognitifs et surtout omniscients : d’où l’idée que iura novit curia et que le juge soit peritus peritorum.La recherche ici conduite vise toutefois à montrer la distance entre ces adages et la réalité et que les dispositions de la loi, modelées sur cette image idéale, finissent à être déformés, voire ignorées ; souvent au détriment (d'au moins une) des parties.D'où l'idée selon laquelle le centre de gravité de la discipline devrait être transféré du procès au juge ; ce qui implique, d'une part, la nécessité de comprendre ce dernier en tant qu'homme, en s’appuyant sur des recherches interdisciplinaires ; de l'autre, une révision des procédures de sélection de la personne du magistrat
In order to face the crisis of the justice system, the legislator has always reacted by modifying the codes, but the economic analysis shows the inadequacy of the procedural reforms. Indeed, the goals mainly pursued by the legislator (reduction of the demand for justice and acceleration of the trial) by changing the rules of the game are often ignored because, among other things, of the strategic behaviour of the actors of the trial.The only area which reveals still unexploited potentialities is that of judge’s specialization; but specialization, both legal and epistemic, encounters strong cultural resistance, probably related to the judge's sociological and legal image, which has been built and consolidated over time. It is the image of a superman, hidden from passions and cognitive prejudices and, above all, omniscient: hence, the idea that iura novit curia and that the judge is peritorum peritum.The research conducted here, however, aims to show the distance between these adages and reality and that the provisions of the law, shaped on the basis of this ideal image, end up being distorted, if not ignored; often at the expense (of at least one) of the parties. For these reasons, it is suggested that the focus of the discipline should be transferred from the trial to the judge; but this shift implies, on the one hand, the need to understand the latter as a man, thus relying on interdisciplinary research; on the other, a revision of the selection procedures of the magistrate's person

Thesis (M. Eng.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 1996.
Includes bibliographical references (leaf 49).
by Brodi J. Beartusk.
M.Eng.

The purpose of this research was to investigate different approaches to expert system design and implementation. The resulting research information was used to create a microcomputer based expert system for the university computer services. The aim of this expert system is to help users (students, faculty, and staff) with micro computer purchases. As part of the research various interviews were conducted with prospective computer purchasers and the micro computer experts. This approach was taken to ensure that the system was easy to use and that it provided all users with vital information regarding the purchase of a computer system. Micro Expert was developed on IBM architecture using a commercially available expert system shell and 'C' programming language.The beta testing stage of the system was used to conduct more interviews and questionnaires with the microcomputer experts. This process was used to ensure that the product covered the most common questions of the users and provided adequate help and information on purchases.
Department of Computer Science

TESIS PARA OPTAR AL GRADO DE MAGÍSTER EN ADMINISTRACIÓN DE EMPRESAS
En este documento se presenta un plan de negocios para la creación de una nueva empresa, denominada BAU EXPERT, orientada a la comercialización e instalación de revestimientos de pisos industriales. Para esto se ha realizadouna investigación de mercado que ha permitido caracterizar el mercado de los revestimientos de pisos industriales en Chile, sus tendencias y oportunidades a ser explotadas.Es un mercado encrecimiento tanto en Chile como en el mundo. Nuevos tipos de revestimientos que satisfacennecesidades específicas de diversas industrias, sumado a tendencias mundiales orientadas a reducir el impacto ecológico y costos totales de propiedad, son los sustentos deeste crecimiento.Es en este contexto que se visualiza una oportunidad para la entrada de una nueva empresa enfocada ensegmentosde mercado poco explotados. Estos son los de hospitales y bodegas, con requerimientosrevestimientos de pisos industriales con características especialmente diseñadas para ambientes con altos requerimientos sanitarios y mecánicos respectivamente.Además se presenta un plan de marketing para 5 años, que buscará posicionar a la empresa BAU EXPERT como líder especializado en revestimientos de pisos industriales con altos requerimientos técnicos en la Región Metropolitana. A través de su acuerdo comercial exclusivo con MELOS, empresa alemana con una amplia gama de soluciones innovadoras y de alta calidad para el recubrimiento de pisosindustriales, BAU EXPERT será capaz de ofrecer una gran variedad de soluciones certificadas según estándares europeos de construcción, a precios competitivos y tecnológicamente superiores a las de sus competidores.Se propone un plan de operaciones para implementar y llevar a cabo el proyecto, definiendo el alcance y equipo necesario, además de los riesgos potenciales junto a alternativas de mitigación de los mismos.Se concluye, mediante un análisis de riesgos críticos y un análisis financiero, que este emprendimiento resulta atractivo, ya que cuenta con indicadores proyectados que superan al promedio para este tipo de industria, entre los que destacan un VAN de más de 99millones de pesos y una TIR de 34,56% con un horizonte de proyecto de 5 años.

Thesis (Master of Arts)--Miami University, Dept. of Psychology, 2005.
Title from first page of PDF document. Document formatted into pages; contains [2], 39 p. : ill. Includes bibliographical references (p. 26-29).

This qualitative study explores which cognitive characteristics and strategies are common to both adult experts and adolescents when placed in the role of an expert. The basis for comparison are the nine characteristics and five strategies identified as common to all adult experts by Shanteau, 1992. Data were collected from interviews held with eight adolescents upon completion of an "Expert Project" in their Secondary II Physical Science course. Certain shared characteristics and strategies emerged during data collection and analysis, such as acts responsibly and uses help from others. Implications for future research are presented.

PONTIFÍCIA UNIVERSIDADE CATÓLICA DO RIO DE JANEIRO
Diversos resultados empíricos na área de séries temporais indicam que combinar previsores (experts) é, em média, melhor que tentar selecionar um único modelo de previsão. Na medida em que se decide por um esquema de combinação linear, há vários métodos disponíveis para determinar o quanto cada previsor deve contribuir para a resposta consensual, ou em outras palavras, quais devem ser os pesos dos previsores envolvidos. Em um primeiro momento, este trabalho explora o uso prático de diversos métodos tradicionais de ponderação para combinação linear de previsores. Em seguida, propõe um novo sistema para geração de pesos, especialmente projetado para a melhoria do desempenho nas previsões múltiplos passos a frente. O sistema, batizado de Ponderação Neural de Experts (NEW – Neural Expert Weighting), gera modelos de ponderação dinâmica baseados em redes neurais. As redes neurais oferecem a robustez necessária para a simulação de funções de ponderação de alto desempenho, derivadas de um ou mais métodos tradicionais de geração de pesos. O sistema NEW foi avaliado em diversos experimentos comparativos, contemplando 13 séries temporais divididas em dois estudos de casos – derivados do petróleo e competição NN3, uma competição entre metodologias de previsão baseadas em inteligência computacional. Os resultados obtidos foram considerados promissores.
Several empirical results on the time series field indicate that combining forecasting models (experts) is, on average, better than selecting a single forecasting model. Once the linear combination framework is chosen, there are many ways to define the amount of contribution of each combining model to the consensual response; in other words, there are many possible weighting methods. At first, the present work explores the usage of traditional weight generation schemes for the linear combination of forecasters. Afterwards, it proposes a new weight generation framework, specially designed to improve multistep ahead forecasting. The framework, called Neural Experts Weighting (NEW), generates dynamic weighting models based on neural networks. The neural networks provide the desired robustness for the simulation of high performance weighting functions, derived from one or more traditional weighting methods. The NEW framework was assessed with several comparative experiments, encompassing 13 time series divided into two case studies – downstream and NN3 competition, a forecasting competition for computational intelligence methodologies. Results were considered to be promising.

Cette thèse concerne un prototype de système interactif d'aide à la décision boursière, incluant un système expert, pour réaliser des stratégies de couverture, spéculation et arbitrage en gestion de portefeuille

This is an empirical study of leaders and how they affect organizational performance. Its context is the research university as a knowledge intensive organization. It appears to be the first of its kind. The thesis explores whether the characteristics of a leader in position today can tell us about the future success of their institution. It asks the question: Should research universities be led by top scholars? One reason why universities are an interesting case is that, unusually for knowledge-intensive organizations, their leaders' technical expertise can arguably be measured reasonably objectively. Using cross-sectional analysis, the first approach adopted in this thesis is to identify whether accomplished scholars are currently leading the world's top universities and business schools. It demonstrates -- using a variety of data sets, and in a variety of settings, including a check on the role of outliers -- that better universities and business schools are led by presidents and deans with systematically higher numbers of life-time scholarly citations. Next the dissertation attempts to go beyond simple cross-sectional patterns to address the question of causality. It does so in a longitudinal study that follows the performance of a panel of 55 universities over a nine-year period from 1992 to 2001. Using regression analysis, this thesis uncovers some evidence that is consistent with the existence of a causal relationship between the research ability of a leader and the future achievement of their institution. The results suggest that a university tends to improve in the UK Research Assessment Exercise if its leader has been a successful scholar. Qualitative evidence in the form of interviews with university leaders then motivates a theory of strategic leadership that might explain the statistical patterns. It is argued in the thesis that scholars may make effective leaders for reasons that are both internal and external to the individual. A scholar-leader, it is suggested, influences performance because of an inherent knowledge of the core business of a research university, and also through the extension of powers acquired by being viewed as credible by followers. Finally, the thesis concludes by asking whether university governing bodies appoint the right people. The central argument being made in this thesis is that where expert knowledge is the key factor that characterises an organization it is expert knowledge that should also be key in the selection of its leader.

Thesis (MScConsEcol)--Stellenbosch University, 2013.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Decision-making in conservation should be efficient and effective as time and resources are typically limited. Conservation planning is one process by which stakeholders collaboratively make decisions when attempting to ensure the persistence of biodiversity. Spatial prioritization is the activity of applying quantitative data to spatial analysis to select locations for conservation investment and is a distinct process within conservation planning. The use of experts in spatial prioritization, and more generally in conservation planning, is widely accepted and advocated, but there is no general operational model for how best to involve them. Acceptable standards of practice in selecting experts and in applying specific techniques for eliciting expert knowledge need to be developed and tested in different contexts to ensure robust and defensible results of spatial prioritization processes. Although experts and expert knowledge have limitations, including them in spatial prioritization can produce many benefits, such as increased robustness of decisions and time and cost savings. Timeous, decisive, cost-efficient and robust decision-making is essential when attempting to stem the continued loss of biodiversity across the world. Although widely used, very little research has been conducted into the role of experts in spatial prioritization processes. In this research, the role and use of experts and expert knowledge in spatial prioritization was explored through the following processes: 1) a review of the peer-reviewed literature examining the role, and different types, of experts included in spatial prioritization studies (Chapter 2) to identify the patterns of their involvement; 2) a study examining the process and the differences between individual and group expert outputs and outcomes produced from a typical spatial prioritization workshop to provide a baseline against which experts might be identified for future involvement (Chapter 3); and 3) a study examining the knowledge of local community and land management experts and their ability to predict private landowners self-reported attitudes towards conservation, willingness to partner with organizations and behavior relating to conservation, aimed to test if expert knowledge might replace interviews when mapping conservation opportunity (Chapter 4). The main findings of this research are, firstly, that experts primarily contributed to spatial prioritization through mapping of species, habitats and ecosystems (that can be input into spatial prioritization analyses), and specifically also the selection of areas important for implementing conservation action (e.g., priority conservation areas). Secondly, individual experts contributed different expertise to the spatial prioritization processes in which they were involved, sometimes despite being considered experts in the same field. Individual experts differed to each other in the knowledge they contributed, decisions they made, and in the information content and its spatial representation. Groups of experts collaborating to produce the same information were more effective at capturing expert knowledge than individuals. Thirdly, when seeking to map human and social data to inform the mapping of conservation opportunity, experts were unable to reliably score private landowner's attitudes towards conservation, willingness to partner with organizations and behavior relating to conservation. Experts were able though, to provide accurate knowledge on the general attitudes of landowners, the context of the area in which the research was conducted, and the challenges that landowners in the area face. Collectively, this research can be used to inform the development of standards of best practice to ensure the most effective and cost efficient approach to integrating spatial prioritization software with expert knowledge.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Besluitneming in bewaring moet doeltreffend en effektief wees omdat tyd en hulpbronne skaars is. Bewaringsbeplanning is een proses waardeur aandeelhouers gesamentlik besluite kan neem wanneer hul poog om die voortbestaan van biodiversiteit te verseker. Ruimtelike prioritisering verwys na die proses waar kwantitatiewe data toegepas word op ruimtelike analise om areas vir bewaringsbelegging te selekteer. Dit is 'n afsonderlike proses binne bewaringsbeplanning. Die gebruik van deskundiges in die bepaling van ruimtelike prioritisering en meer algemene bewaringsbeplanning word wyd aanvaar en bepleit maar daar is geen algemene operationele model wat bepaal hoe om hul ten beste in te sluit nie. Aanvaarbare standaarde in die praktyk van die seleksie van kundiges en die aanwending van spesifieke tegnieke om kundige kennisstelsels uit te lok moet ontwikkel en getoets word in verskillende kontekste om robuuste en verdedigbare resultate te verseker. Daar is baie voordele verbonde aan die gebruik van deskundiges en kundige kennisstelsels, ten spyte van hul beperkings. Voordele sluit onder andere tyd- en kostebesparings in. Tydige, beslissende, koste-effektiewe en robuuste besluitneming is noodsaaklik wanneer daar gepoog word om die voortdurende wêreldwye verlies aan biodiversiteit te stuit. Al word hul algemeen gebruik is daar nog baie min navorsing gedoen oor die rol van kundiges tydens die proses van ruimtelike prioritisering. Die rol en gebruik van kundiges en kundige kennisstelsels in die bepaling van ruimtelike prioritisering is deur die volgende prosesse ondersoek: 1) 'n Oorsig van portuurbeoordeelde literatuur wat die rol van en verskillende tipes kuniges wat in ruimtelike prioritisering studies ingesluit word, bestudeer (Hoofstuk 2) ten einde die patrone van hul betrokkenheid te identifiseer; 2) 'n studie wat die proses en verskille tussen die insette en uitkomste van individuele en groepe kundiges, soos geproduseer by 'n tipiese ruimtelike prioritisering werkwinkel, bestudeer ten einde 'n grondlyn daar te stel waarteen kundiges vir toekomstige betrokkenheid geïdentifiseer kan word (Hoostuk 3); en 3) 'n bestudering van die kennis van plaaslike gemeenskaps- en grondbestuur kundiges en hul vermoë om privaat grondeienaars se selfgerapporteerde houdings teenoor bewaring, hul bereidwilligheid om met organisasies saam te werk en gedrag wat verband hou met bewaring te voorspel om te toets of kundige kennis onderhoude sal kan vervang tydens die kartering van bewaringsmoontlikhede (Hoofstuk 4). Die vernaamste bevindinge van hierdie navorsing is, ten eerste, dat kundiges se primêre bydrae tot ruimtelike prioritisering plaasvind deur die kartering van spesies, habitats en ekosisteme (wat alles in ruimtelike prioritisering analise vervat kan word), en meer bepaald die seleksie van areas wat belangrik is vir die implementering van bewaringsaksie (bv. prioriteit bewaringsareas). Tweedens, individuele kundiges se bydrae tot die ruimtelike prioritisering prosesse waar hul betrokke was, het verskil, selfs waar hul as kundiges in dieselfde veld beskou word. Individuele kundiges het van mekaar verskil ten opsigte van die kennis wat hul bygedra het, die besluite wat hul geneem het, die inhoud van inligting en die ruimtelike voorstelling daarvan. Groepe kundiges wat saamwerk om dieselfde inligting op te lewer was meer effektief in die vaslegging van kundige kennis as individuele kundiges. Derdens, tydens die soeke na menslike en maatskaplike data om die kartering van bewaringsmoontlikhede in te lig was kundiges nie in staat is om 'n betroubare skatting van privaat grondeienaars se houdings teenoor bewaring, bereidwilligheid om saam met organisasies te werk en gedrag wat verband hou met bewaring te maak nie. Deskundiges kon egter akkurate kennis meedeel ten opsigte van die algemene houdings van grondeienaars, die konteks van die area van navorsing en die uitdagings wat grondeienaars in die spesifieke areas in die gesig staar. Hierdie navorsing kan gesamentlik gebruik word om die ontwikkeling van standaarde van beste praktyk vas te stel om die mees doeltreffende en koste-effektiewe benadering tot die integrasie van ruimtelike prioritisering sagteware met deskundige kennis te verseker.

Thesis: S.M., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, May, 2020
Cataloged from the official PDF of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 91-94).
Today, many long-haul freight locomotives around the world are equipped with autothrottle systems that follow pre-computed and fuel-efficient speed plans. However, these systems cannot adapt to changes in operational constraints or engineers' train handling preferences, which results in engineers taking back manual control. To address issues created by this traded approach scheme, a new operational mode is envisioned that allows operators to shape automation behavior. Although high level goals have been enumerated by previous task analyses, there has been little research on how engineers actually drive routes, identify situations, and make train handling decisions. To fill this gap , five subject pairs drove a U.S. DOT/FRA freight locomotive research simulator along a 65 mile route, responding to signals, speed restrictions and dispatcher orders. Each subject pair consisted of one expert and one novice subject. One subject was seated at the controls and the other subject was seated in the conductor's position. The subject at the controls had limited access to information and relied on verbal communication with the other subject to safely manipulate the train controls. Subjects drove the route twice, once at each position. The research team developed a coding scheme based on cognitive linguistics research and prior work on freight driving strategies to categorize each interaction from the study. Analysis of this data suggested that experienced engineers know what decisions and actions should be taken when various situations are encountered along a route, but their train handling (e.g. braking) tactics vary. Next-generation autothrottle systems should leverage the engineer's ability to assess operational context and initiate actions. Additionally, these systems should allow the operator to make speed plan modifications at both the tactical and strategic level to accommodate the observed variation between engineers' control strategies.
by Rachel Price.
S.M.
S.M. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics

This thesis examines the organizational causes of the Department of Defense's (DoD) inability to acquire working defense systems. One major cause of this is identified as a lack of a sufficient number of trained and experienced acquisition personnel. An examination of the definitions of Decision Support and Expert Systems is made to determine their suitability for application to this problem. The information system framework of Gorry and Scott Morton is used to structure the acquisition problem. The DoD acquisition problem is found to be a good candidate for the application of expert systems. An expert system architecture is developed to provide acquisition personnel both technical and management support. Use of a central mainframe, connected to the Defense Data Network will provide nationwide access, with centralized control of the knowledge base. The architecture allows for the incorporation of existing conventional software under expert software control. In order to reduce development cost and time, the use of existing DoD manuals, as the knowledge base, is proposed. A prototype module, utilizing the M.1 expert shell and DoD Manual 4245.7-M and NAVSO P-6071 is developed to prove the feasibility of this approach

The first part of the thesis provides an introduction to the logic programming language Prolog and some areas of current research. The use of compilation to make Prolog faster and more efficient is studied and a modified representation for complex structures is presented. Two programming tools are also presented. The second part of the thesis focuses on one problem which arises when implementing an Expert System using Prolog. A practical three-valued Prolog implementation is described. An interpreter accepts three-valued formulae and converts these into a Prolog representation. Formulae are in clausal form which allows disjunctive conclusions to rules. True and false formulae are stated explicitly and therefore the interpreter is able to perform useful consistency checks when information is added to the data base.

As the technology of computer systems matures, it is becoming clear that conventional techniques are inadequate for complex applications, and attention is being increasingly directed at the use of Knowledge-Based Systems technology. Critical problems in Knowledge-Based Systems are the representation of the expertise from the selected application, and in harnessing sufficient computing power to utilise the stored expertise. An idea which is currently popular in Artificial Intelligence research is that of using parallel processing to ensure that the expertise or knowledge is used effectively, within realistic timescales. Proposals vary in the degree of parallelism, and in the distribution of the problem solving activities. The theory of connectionism, which proposes that the knowledge representation and the problem solving computations are distributed across a very large number of processors, has generated considerable interest and response. Connectionist machines, sometimes known as massively parallel processors, are not highly parallel versions of conventional problem solving engines, but combine the representation of the problem with the processing to produce what is known as an active memory network. Research is described which investigates the application of connectionist theory to various complex problems. These problems are investigated within the context of conventional knowledge-based systems, with the aim of establishing if massively parallel technology realises an efficient problem solving engine. The difficulties associated with the representation and use of numbers in connectionist networks are addressed, the problem of relating the knowledge representation in expert systems to that in connectionist networks is resolved, and the potential for medium scale parallelism in knowledge-based systems is contrasted with the parallelism of connectionism. Finally, the vision of an ideal problem solving engine is considered; some aspects of the evolving designs approach this ideal, and are described.

L'application des techniques de systèmes experts au domaine de la gastronomie, par la modélisation des règles Prolog et la réalisation d'un module d'acquisition des connaissances, permettant à un expert de générer des règles Prolog
Application of the technics of expert systems to the domain of gastronomy, by the modelisation of Prolog rules and the realization of a modulus of knowledge's acquisition allowing an expert to generate Prolog rules

Cette thèse porte sur la conception d'outils numériques interactifs pour les professionnels du design graphique et de la chorégraphie contemporaine. Ces praticiens utilisent des principes et des méthodes personnels qui contraignent et guident leur processus créatif. Je soutiens que, pour construire des logiciels puissants permettant d’étayer leurs pratiques, nous devons les laisser définir et manipuler leur propre ensemble de contraintes créatives. Je présente deux outils qui illustrent cette approche. StickyLines offre des représentations visuelles des contraintes d’alignement et de distribution d’objets graphiques afin de mieux répondre aux besoins des utilisateurs. Knotation permet aux chorégraphes d'esquisser leurs idées et de les rendre interactives, en leur permettant de représenter des contraintes, du mouvement ou une combinaison. Je montre que, bien que leur produit créatif soit de nature fondamentalement différente, le processus créatif de ces professionnels peut être abordé avec une stratégie commune: permettre aux utilisateurs de créer des substrats interactifs qui articulent contenu et contraintes
This thesis focuses on the design of interactive digital tools for professionals in graphic design and contemporary choreography. These practitioners employ personal principles and methods that constrain and guide their creative process. I argue that to build powerful software tools to support their practice, we need to let them interactively define and manipulate their own set of creative constraints. I introduce two tools that illustrate this approach. StickyLines provides visual representations of alignment and distribution constraints in layout design to better match users’ needs. Knotation allows choreographers to sketch their ideas and make them interactive, letting them represent constraints, movement, or a combination. I show that although their creative product is fundamentally different in nature, these professionals’ creative process can be addressed with a common strategy: Allowing users to create interactive substrates that articulate content and constraints

L'expert est un personnage clé, à la base de toute procédure d'indemnisation et souvent au centre des litiges qui nous opposent à notre assureur. Cette profession a connu une évolution organisationnelle et structurelle considérable. Actuellement, la majorité des cabinets d'experts appartiennent à un groupement ou à un réseau intégré. Les instances professionnelles participent à cette évolution dans la mesure où ils ont institué un régime de sélection des experts. Dans le cadre structurel, les experts ont effectué des efforts pour améliorer leur productivité, misant notamment sur les outils de gestion à distance. Malgré cette évolution, les experts se sentent parfois dérangés par les exigences des assureurs. Dans ce contexte la crédibilité de l'expertise peut être suspectée. Ce dernier ne sera crédible que si les rapports que l'expert entretient avec des tiers, quels qu'ils soient, sont sans incidence sur le sens de son rapport. L'expert d'assurance n'échappe pas à cette contrainte et doit pouvoir et savoir faire preuve de son indépendance, car c'est l'interface nécessaire entre des acteurs dont les intérêts sont opposés. Le plus souvent perçu comme « l'homme de l'assureur », ce qui, est, malheureusement, le sentiment le plus répandu auprès du public. Cette affirmation de l'indépendance ne manque pas encore de soulever des difficultés. L'indépendance ne se caractérise pas par l'absence de tout lien entre l'expert et l'assureur : plus précisément, elle requiert que ces liens n'affectent pas le sens de son rapport. Or, une telle inflexion peut trouver sa source dans une situation de dépendance juridique et économique
An expert is a key character in any compensation procedure and is often the focus of disputes between us and our insurer company. This profession has gone trough a considerable organisational and structural evolution. At present, most of experts' offices belong to groupings or to adjoined networks. Professional authorities participate in this evolution as they have established a system of experts selection. In the structural frame, the experts have made efforts to improve their productivity, focusing particularly on remote management tools. Despite this evolution, these experts may feel sometimes disturbed by insurers demands. In this context the credibility of the expertise can be put in doubt. It will be acceptable only if reports that the expert maintains with third parties, whoever they are, are not biased by their relationship. The expert cannot avoid this constraint and must be able to prove his independence. This is due to the fact that this is the necessary interface between actors whose interests are opposed. Expert is most often perceived as "the man of the insurer, which is, unfortunately, the most popular feeling within the public. This assertion of the independence is yet to see the end of its difficulties. This independence is not characterised by the absence of all links between the expert and the insurer : more precisely, it requires that these links when existing do not affect the sense of their relationship. In this way such inflection can find its source in a situation of legal and economic dependence

Les nouvelles technologies de l’information rendent l’accès au savoir possible, des forum et des réseaux sociaux permettent aux malades de s’organiser, le monde associatif se structure, et dans cette dynamique, des patients sont considérés des experts de leur maladie chronique. Toutefois, la nature de leur expertise reste floue et polémique et appelle à être caractérisée. Pour caractériser ce phénomène, nous avons utilisé comme cadre conceptuel le socioconstructivisme et l’individualisme méthodologique. A partir d’une première grille d’analyse issue d’une recension des écrits sur les notions d’expert et d’expertise, il a été procédé à des entretiens avec 12 patients reconnus socialement comme ayant une pratique d’expert ainsi qu’à des entretiens avec des professionnels de santé qui les côtoient en différentes circonstances. La première grille d’analyse ayant permis d’identifier les domaines à explorer, nous avons procédé à l’analyse qualitative et compréhensive des récits de vie des patients et mis en évidence leur motivation, éthique, déontologie, rapport au savoir, modalités d’apprentissages, savoirs, actions, compétences, traits de personnalité, et leur rapport aux soins et à leurs soignants. Deux types de patients-experts émergent qui se consacrent soit aux problématiques biomédicales, soit à l’accompagnement social et au système de soins. Ces deux types de patients-experts ont en commun d’être des acteurs sociaux passionnés et altruistes, qui poursuivent l’objectif d’améliorer la prise en charge de la maladie et/ou sa prévention, qui déploient à cet effet des compétences interculturelles, émotionnelles et de l’autonomie, et qui assurent des rôles d’interface, de porte-voix et d’éclaireurs. Ces acteurs motivés, qui participent à identifier des problématiques de santé et à les élucider, intéressent la santé publique dans la mesure où nos résultats interrogent le type de fonctions qu’ils pourraient occuper dans le système de santé et la forme que pourrait prendre la valorisation de leurs actions
New information technology provides access to knowledge; thanks to forums and social networks, patients can organize, constructing a community in which some patients are considered experts in their chronic disease. The nature of that expertise is unclear and controversial, however, and demands characterizations. To characterize this phenomenon we employed social constructivism and methodological individualism as a conceptual framework. Using an initial analysis grid taken from a literature review on the concepts of expert and expertise, we interviewed twelve patients socially acknowledged as having expert experience, as well as health professionals with whom they have contact in a variety of circumstances

Approved for public release, distribution is unlimited
Expert Systems (ES) are characterized by containing the knowledge of a single human expert. Most ES today operate in a 'standalone' basis, providing expertise in a specific domain. However, managers making strategic decisions on complex topics require the coordination assessment and evaluation of knowledge from multiple human experts. Standalone knowledge bases should be loosely or tightly coupled together to form a network of coordinated Distributed Expert Systems (DES). To facilitate this, a 'meta-ES' could be designed to access and control these distributed knowledge bases, thus providing users with a single entry point into a vast knowledge network. In the U.S. Navy submarine is constructed of compact, high energy systems, safety is paramount to prevent both personal injury and material damage during maintenance evolutions. The Ship's Duty Officer (SDO) is responsible for the safe and effective execution of all maintenance aboard ship. Thus, he needs to be knowledgeable of how maintenance on one system will affect the operation of other systems. Since the SDO requires many sources of expertise, automating a submarine maintenance process is an appropriate DES application.

Lorsque les systèmes experts abordent des domaines d'application très complexes, l'organisation d'un système expert sous forme d'une base de connaissances, d'une mémoire de travail et un mécanisme d'inférence, aussi puissant soient-ils, devient insuffisante. De telles applications font souvent intervenir une expertise hétérogène provenant de plusieurs experts dans différents domaines. Les techniques d'Intelligence Artificielle Distribuée comme celles des systèmes multi-experts, sont nées de la nécessité de développer ces applications. Dans ce mémoire, nous présentons un outil basé sur le générateur de systèmes experts SUPER, qui permet de développer une architecture multi-expert pour répondre à la demande de telles applications complexes. Notre démarche a consisté à distribuer le travail en plusieurs systèmes experts, chaque système expert possédant sa propre base de connaissances, sa propre base de faits et son propre moteur d'inférence. Une structuration en réseau de bases de connaissances est proposée pour assurer la cohérence globale du système et une stratégie de résolution efficace. Les systèmes experts peuvent communiquer entre eux par envoi de messages, et s'assister par l'échange des informations. Différentes stratégies de contrôle du système qui permettent le suivi de processus dynamique sont décrites dans ce mémoire. Un élément considéré comme important dans ce travail, est le temps de réponse du système. Nous présentons également dans ce mémoire une application de l'outil développé pour réaliser un système de diagnostic automobile. Cette application est réalisée dans le cadre du projet Euréka-Prometheus.

The main work for this thesis has been a thorough study of the novel Prediction with Partially Monitored Grouped Expert Advice and Side Information paradigm. This is newly proposed in this thesis, and it extends the widely studied Prediction with Expert Advice paradigm. The extension is based on two assumptions and one restriction that modify the original problem. The first assumption, Grouped, presumes that the experts are structured into groups. The second assumption, Side Information, introduces additional information that can be used to timely relate predictions with groups. Finally, the restriction, Partially Monitored, imposes that the groups’ predictions are only known for one group at a time. The study of this paradigm includes the design of a complete prediction algorithm, the proof of a theoretical bound of the worse-case cumulative regret for such algorithm, and an experimental evaluation of the algorithm (proving the existence of cases where this paradigm outperforms Prediction with Expert Advice). Furthermore, since the development of the algorithm is constructive, it allows to easily build two additional prediction algorithms for the Prediction with Grouped Expert Advice and Prediction with Grouped Expert Advice and Side Information paradigms. Therefore, this thesis presents three novel prediction algorithms, with corresponding regret bounds, and a comparative experimental evaluation including the original Prediction with Expert Advice paradigm.
Huvudarbetet för den här avhandlingen har varit en grundlig studie av den nya Prediction with Partially Monitored Grouped Expert Advice and Side Information paradigmet. Detta är nyligen föreslagit i denna avhandling, och det utökar det brett studerade Prediction with Expert Advice paradigmet. Förlängningen baseras på två antaganden och en begränsning som ändrar det ursprungliga problemet. Det första antagandet, Grouped, förutsätter att experterna är inbyggda i grupper. Det andra antagandet, Side Information, introducerar ytterligare information som kan användas för att i tid relatera förutsägelser med grupper. Slutligen innebär begränsningen, Partially Monitored, att gruppens förutsägelser endast är kända för en grupp i taget. Studien av detta paradigm innefattar utformningen av en komplett förutsägelsesalgoritm, beviset på en teoretisk bindning till det sämre fallet kumulativa ånger för en sådan algoritm och en experimentell utvärdering av algoritmen (bevisar förekomsten av fall där detta paradigm överträffar Prediction with Expert Advice). Eftersom algoritmens utveckling är konstruktiv tillåter den dessutom att enkelt bygga två ytterligare prediksionsalgoritmer för Prediction with Grouped Expert Advice och Prediction with Grouped Expert Advice and Side Information paradigmer. Därför presenterar denna avhandling tre nya prediktionsalgoritmer med motsvarande ångergränser och en jämförande experimentell utvärdering inklusive det ursprungliga Prediction with Expert Advice paradigmet.

Lo scopo di questo lavoro è introdurre il lettore all’utilizzo dei sistemi esperti nell’ambito manutentivo, specialmente riguardo alla diagnostica. La struttura della dissertazione è articolata in tre parti principali. La prima consiste in una panoramica sulla manutenzione e sui metodi più comuni che ne fanno parte, focalizzandosi specialmente su quelli che sono più attinenti ai sistemi esperti. Nella seconda parte il lettore può trovare le tipologie, le caratteristiche rilevanti e la storia dei sistemi esperti. L’ultima parte della tesi è dedicata allo sviluppo del caso di studio, introdotto da una descrizione del software utilizzato per la sua progettazione (VisiRule). A conclusione del lavoro sono presentate delle considerazioni sugli aspetti positivi dell’utilizzo di sistemi esperti nell’ambito della diagnostica manutentiva.

This thesis addresses the problem of providing explanations for expert systems implemented in a shell that supports a hybrid knowledge representation architecture. Hybrid representations combine rules and frames and are the predominant architecture in intermediate and high-end commercial expert system shells. The main point of the thesis is that frames can be endowed with explanation capabilities on a par with rules. The point is illustrated by a partial specification for an expert system shell and sample explanations which could be generated by an expert system coded to that specification. As background information, the thesis introduces expert systems and the standard knowledge representation schemes that support them: rule-only schemes, and hybrid schemes that combine rules with frames. Explanations for expert systems are introduced in the context of rules, since rules are the only representation for which explanations are supported, either in commercial tools or in the preponderance of research. The problem addressed by the thesis, how to produce explanations for hybrid architectures, is analyzed in two dimensions. Research was surveyed in three areas for guiding principles toward solving the problem: frame logic, metalevel architectures, and reflective architectures. With the few principles that were discovered in hand, the problem is then analyzed into a small number of subproblems, mainly concerning high-level architectural decisions. The solution proposed to the problem is described in two ways. First a partial specification for expert system shell functionality is offered, which describes, first, object structures and, then, behaviors at three points in time—object compilation time, execution time, and explanation generation time. The second component of the description is a set of extended examples which illustrate explanation generation in a hypothetical expert system. The solution adopts principles of reflective architectures, storing metainformation for explanations in metaobjects which are distinct from the object-level objects they explain. The most novel contribution of the solution is a scheme for relating all the ways that objects' slot values may be computed to the goal tree construct introduced by the seminal Mycin expert system. The final chapter explores potential problems with the solution and the possibility of producing better explanations for hybrid expert system shell architectures.
Science, Faculty of
Computer Science, Department of
Graduate

Target firms in Australian takeovers are required to obtain an independent assessment of the offer price in situations where the Corporations Law considers the bidder has a superior bargaining position. The intention of this requirement is to protect target shareholders from being offered a lower takeover premium. The only empirical study of expert reports, Eddey (1993), is consistent with expert reports achieving their purpose, as the results indicate no difference in target firm premiums in offers with and without an expert report. Eddey also reports that a revision in offer price is more likely where an expert indicates the bid is �not fair and reasonable.� Using all takeovers from 1990 to 2000, this thesis aims to re-examine and substantially extend the findings in Eddey. As the sample includes all bids, irrespective of the form of payment consideration, the thesis will assess whether the results in Eddey can be extrapolated from cash-based bids to all takeover bids. In addition, the analysis will extend Eddey�s results by investigating whether expert reports result in a higher probability of a revision in offer price relative to takeovers without an expert report. This study also investigates the impact of the expert report on bidder announcement abnormal returns and examines the returns to both bidders and targets when the expert report is released. This will add to the limited current knowledge on the impact of expert reports on the capital market. This thesis also tests the validity of public criticisms of expert independence. Firstly, experts have been publicly criticised on the basis that they are not independent from the target firm. It has been suggested that such experts will be more likely to provide an opinion that agrees with the recommendation of target directors. Secondly, it has been alleged that experts who are also the target auditor provide their reports at a lower fee by cross-subsidising the reports� preparation from other fees received from the client. The concern with this practice is that these reports may be of lower quality. This criticism is tested by developing an expert fee model. This fee model is then used to assess whether, similar to evidence in the auditing field, �quality� experts earn a fee premium. The results indicate that the need for an expert report does not affect bidder abnormal returns at either the announcement of the takeover or release of the expert report. On the other hand, target shareholders earn significantly lower abnormal returns at the announcement of a bid where an expert report is required. This result is inconsistent with Eddey (1993) and raises doubt over whether experts prevent bidders from using their superior bargaining position to offer target shareholders a lower premium. Consistent with Eddey, the probability of an alteration in offer price is greater where an adverse expert opinion is given. The results also show that the presence of an expert increases the likelihood of a bid revision relative to takeovers in general. Target abnormal returns on the release of an expert report are positive and significant, irrespective of the type of expert opinion. This result however, is sensitive to any association between the author of the report and the target. In the case that an expert discloses any prior or current business dealings with the target, abnormal returns are insignificant. The conclusion from this finding is that the market perceives expert reports prepared by an associate of the target as lacking credibility. In light of this lack of information content it is recommended corporate regulators review those experts permitted to prepare reports. Contrary to the published criticisms, experts who have business dealings with the target are just as likely as other experts to provide an opinion that agrees with the recommendation of directors. The tests of a fee reduction by experts associated to the target indicate significant lower fees where the expert is the target auditor. Further analysis shows this result is only significant where the auditor is also a non-Big 6/5 firm. These auditors are also found to provide reports that are significantly shorter than other experts, suggesting the cut in fee is achieved by reducing the amount of effort. The results also find that the top two experts, Grant Samuels and Associates and Price Waterhouse Coopers, earn a fee premium over other experts. The finding of a fee premium for a large accounting firm indicates that such firms may receive a premium for both auditing and non-audit services.

This thesis investigates the developmental socialisation process of the expert performer into sport, and considers the influence of significant others such as the family, coaches and peers within this process. The study complements existing research in the field of youth sport such as Cote and colleagues' Developmental Model of Sport Participation (DMSP) by using life story interviews to explore retrospectively the experiences of senior expert sport performers (defined in this study as international level performers age 18 years and over) in both team and individual sports. The participants were 36 expert performers (male (n = 16) and female (n = 20)) in rugby union, field hockey, track and field athletics, swimming and taekwondo. Qualitative research forms the basis of the study and life story interviews were employed as the primary tool to generate data. The four main analysis chapters present the key themes generated from the data, which include: 'The developmental socialisation process of expert performers'; 'The family'; 'Coaches'; and 'Peers'. In broad terms the data reported in this study support the concept of developmental socialisation proposed by Cote and colleagues' DMSP model, as well as raising some further questions around, for example, the nature of transition through the three phases of sampling, specialising and investing, early specialisation, the role of deliberate play and deliberate practice, and the so-called '1 0 year rule'. The findings also provide clear evidence of the complexity of the process with no two individuals sharing identical experiences of socialisation. Additionally, evidence from this study showed that most experts sampled a range of sports before specialising, suggesting . that delaying specialisation to a later age can be beneficial to the young performer. The family, coaches and peers all play a key part in the expert performers' socialisation into sport, although their influence varied at different phases of the developmental socialisation process. The thesis concludes that a developmental socialisation perspective on youth sport provides a robust means of conceptualising the pathways many young people follow to become experts in specific sports and provides a basis for policy development in youth sport.

The continuous increase in the cost of building real life projects, the high cost of researches concerning a project and the urgent demands for the project to be delivered in a short period of time have urged researchers to find a new scheme of programming in which they would be able to simulate or emulate the real life activities and projects using a computer and a procedural language. But such a scheme of programming was lengthy, tedious and costly. Therefore, it was necessary to find a specialized simulation software that would save the programmer's time and effort on the one hand and would save the client's money on the other. A number of simulation software were developed recently which contributed greatly to the solutions of the simulation problems. However, none of these languages possessed the completeness nor the independence of the use of other tools or procedural languages to compensate for their deficiencies.In this paper I have proposed a number of new ideas aimed to improve the simulation languages in general, and have implemented a number of these ideas in a software package. Chapter one describes the simulation model and the basic concepts of simulation. Chapter two describes briefly the advantages and disadvantages of using simulation software. Also it outlines the limitations of currently used simulation packages. Finally, it suggests new ideas and expectations of a complete simulation package. Chapter three describes the simulation package prototype S. E. S. and gives some implementations. Chapter four explains the basic differences between S. E. S. and SLAM II and shows areas for further research.
Department of Computer Science

Expert systems divide neatly into two categories: those in which ( 1) the expert decisions result in changes to some external environment (control systems), and (2) the expert decisions merely seek to describe the environment (classification systems). Both the explanation of computer-based reasoning and the "bottleneck" (Feigenbaum, 1979) of knowledge acquisition are major issues in expert systems research. We have contributed to these areas of research in two ways. Firstly, we have implemented an expert system shell, the Mugol environment, which facilitates knowledge acquisition by inductive inference and provides automatic explanation of run-time reasoning on demand. RuleMaster, a commercial version of this environment, has been used to advantage industrially in the construction and testing of two large classification systems. Secondly, we have investigated a new technique called sequence induction which can be used in the construction of control systems. Sequence induction is based on theoretical work in grammatical learning. We have improved existing grammatical learning algorithms as well as suggesting and theoretically characterising new ones. These algorithms have been successfully applied to the acquisition of knowledge for a diverse set of control systems, including inductive construction of robot plans and chess end-game strategies.

This thesis investigates methods of modelling problems containing uncertainty, paying particular attention to situations where there is hole empirical data and the modeller chooses to employ subjective expert assessments. In chapter 1 we examine the historical and philosophical underpinnings of subjective probability, discuss how it can be used in practical situations and investigate some of the typical errors associated with eliciting expert assessments. We describe an experiment in which experts assess multi-outcome events with which they are familiar and examine whether they suffer from the same types of assessment errors as naive subjects tend to exhibit As a foundation for our further experiments we discuss the methods and procedures which other practitioners have adopted for eliciting expert judgements and examine how conflicting assessments might be resolved into a coherent position. Chapter 2 investigates ways in which univariatc uncertainty can be quantified and modelled. We conduct an experiment on the elicitation of means and variances for a variety of real distributions and procedures suggested in previous studies. The standard methods of representing random variables with differential equations, series expansions, transformations and inverse functions are discussed and we develop a new functional form for simulation studies. This NB function is both more flexible and computationally faster than the standard alternatives. We have also developed interactive software for the elicitation and quantification of a variable in this NB functional form and describe an experiment to verify this approach. Chapter 3 develops the univariate approaches of chapter 2 for applications involving dependent variables. We first discuss the standard methods of representing multivariate distributions and highlight their limitations. Having examined the requirements of a multivariate representation suitable for simulation and expert elicitation, we develop two approaches based upon the NB functions already described and dependence measures. These are compared with various standard forms, fitting them to both theoretical and real distributions, with some very promising results. Finally we describe an experiment in which we subjectively elicit measures of dependence for a number of real distributions, comparing the accuracy and acceptability of the various techniques.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Linguistics and Philosophy, 2009.
Includes bibliographical references (p. [83]-86).
My dissertation investigates two questions from within a partial belief framework: First, when and how should deference to experts or other information sources be qualified? Second, how closely is epistemology related to other philosophical fields, such as metaphysics, ethics, and decision theory? Chapter 1 discusses David Lewis's "Big Bad Bug", an argument for the conclusion that the Principal Principle-the thesis that one's credence in a proposition A should equal one's expectation of A's chance, provided one has no inadmissible information-is incompatible with Humean Supervenience-the thesis that that laws of nature, dispositions, and objective chances supervene on the distribution of categorical properties in the world (past, present, and future). I map out the logical structure of the Big Bad Bug, survey a range of possible responses to it, and argue that none of the responses are very appealing. Chapter 2 discusses Bas van Fraassen's Reflection principle-the thesis that one's current credence in a proposition A should equal one's expected future credence in A. Van Fraassen has formulated a diachronic Dutch book argument for Reflection, but other authors cite counterexamples to Reflection that appear to undermine the credibility of diachronic Dutch books. I argue that a suitably qualified version of Reflection gets around the counterexamples. I distinguish between Dutch books that reveal incoherence-like the diachronic Dutch book for conditionalization-and Dutch books that reveal a type of problem I call selfdoubt. I argue that violating Reflection is a type of self-doubt rather than a type of incoherence.
(cont.) Chapter 3 argues that the halfer and thirder solutions to Adam Elga's Sleeping Beauty problem correspond to two more general approaches to de se information. Which approach is right depends on which approach to decision theory is right. I use Dutch books and scoring rules to argue that causal decision theorists should favor the approach that corresponds to thirding, while evidential decision theorists should favor the approach that corresponds to halfing.
by Rachael Briggs.
Ph.D.

Thesis advisor: Callista Roy
Despite the concept of healing being central to nursing, there has been a lack of conceptual clarity. This study sought to understand how expert nurses in practice conceptualize healing and how this conceptualization affects their practice. The sample consisted of 50 practicing nurses from multiple practice settings in an academic health system in Western Massachusetts. The study used a mixed method design using an electronic adaptation of the Delphi method. Findings from the study suggested a high level of consensus about the concept of healing in nursing. Qualitative data from the open-ended questions of Round 1 were coded into items about healing on subsequent quantitative surveys in Rounds 2 and 3. Participants ranked their level of agreement or disagreement with these statements. Ultimately, 49 statements met the a priori criteria for consensus as to what healing means from a nursing perspective. The overarching themes of statements were comprised of Nursing Actions to Promote Healing, Theoretical Understanding of Healing, Nurse Attributes to Promote Healing, Other Factors that Promote Healing, Types of Healing and Assessment of Healing. This study adds to the literature an exclusively nursing perspective on healing. The nursing-specific concept of healing synthesized from the data could be described as progression towards wholeness, with subjective and objective outcomes, promoted by the actions of nurses. The clarification of the concept of healing can inform research to create measurements for healing. It also can improve practice by articulating an existent conceptual framework, allowing nurses and administrators to better promote healing both directly and indirectly. Lastly, the results of this study offer students a simple yet accurate way of prioritizing nursing interventions
Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2015
Submitted to: Boston College. Connell School of Nursing
Discipline: Nursing

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / November 04-07, 1991 / Riviera Hotel and Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada
We describe FAES, a knowledge-based system for postprocess interpretion of telemetry data obtained from in-water tests of the Torpedo MK48 ADCAP and recorded on tape in a telemetry format. The system is designed to automate a diagnostic application in fleet operations. A generic software solution provides the infrastructure for customization through application-specific knowledge representation. Pattern recognition provides a feature-extraction layer between the raw data and an expert system, and gives domain experts a natural and comfortable representation. Use of features abstracted from the raw data greatly reduces the complexity of encoding the rules that describe the behavior of the system under investigation. This allows the experts – not the system programmers – to control the resulting software. The approach has led to development of a system which accurately determines the cause of shutdown in torpedo tests and which will be extended to the full range of diagnostics now done manually. A slightly modified system is being used to support torpedo proofing by automating comparisons of recorded data with the weapon specification and alerting engineers to violations.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 26-29, 1987 / Town and Country Hotel, San Diego, California
In an Independent Research and Development (IR&D) effort, the Telemetry Systems Operation (TSO) of Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC) sought to determine the feasibility of using Artificial Intelligence (AI) techniques in a real-time processing environment. Specifically, the use of an expert system to assist in telemetry data acquisition processing was studied. A prototype expert system was implemented with the purpose of monitoring F15 Vertical Short Take Off and Landing (VSTOL) aircraft engine tests in order to predict engine stalls. This prototype expert system was implemented on a Symbolics 3670 symbolic processor using Inference Corporation's Artificial Reasoning Tool (ART) expert system compiler/generator. The Symbolics computer was connected to a Gould/SEL 32/6750 real-time processor using a Flavors, Inc. Bus Link for real-time data transfer.