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<div class="sectionTitle">Information Science Discussion Papers Series: 1997 Abstracts</div> <hr> <a name="dp1997-01"></a><h3>97/01: Planning and matchmaking for the interoperation of information processing agents</h3> <h4>S. J. S. Cranefield and A. Diaz and M. K. Purvis</h4> <p>In today’s open, distributed environments, there is an increasing need for systems to assist the interoperation of tools and information resources. This paper describes a multi-agent system, DALEKS, that supports such activities for the information processing domain. With this system, information processing tasks are accomplished by the use of an agent architecture incorporating task planning and information agent matchmaking components. We discuss the characteristics of planning in this domain and describe how information processing tools are specified for the planner. We also describe the manner in which planning, agent matchmaking, and information task execution are interleaved in the DALEKS system. An example application taken from the domain of university course administration is provided to illustrate some of the activities performed in this system.</p> <p><a href="papers/dp1997-01.pdf">Download</a> (PDF, 84 KB)</p> <hr> <a name="dp1997-02"></a><h3>97/02: Landscape structure and ecosystem conservation: An assessment using remote sensing</h3> <h4>S. Mann and G. L. Benwell and W. G. Lee</h4> <p>Analyses of landscape structure are used to test the hypothesis that remotely sensed images can be used as indicators of ecosystem conservation status. Vegetation types based on a classified SPOT satellite image were used in a comparison of paired, reserve (conservation area) and adjacent more human modified areas (controls). Ten reserves (average size 965 ha) were selected from upland tussock grasslands in Otago, New Zealand. While there were equal numbers of vegetation types and the size and shape distribution of patches within the overall landscapes were not significantly different, there was less of ‘target’ vegetation in controls. This was in smaller patches and fewer of these patches contained ‘core areas’. These control ‘target’ patches were also less complex in shape than those in the adjacent reserves. These measures showed that remotely sensed images can be used to derive large scale indicators of landscape conservation status. An index is proposed for assessing landscape change and conservation management issues are raised.</p> <p><a href="papers/dp1997-02.pdf">Download</a> (PDF, 108 KB)</p> <hr> <a name="dp1997-03"></a><h3>97/03: Supporting task performance: Is text or video better?</h3> <h4>B. E. Norris and W. B. L. Wong</h4> <p>Multimedia technology allows a variety of the presentation formats to portray instructions for performing a task. These formats include the use of text, graphics, video, aural, photographs, used singly or in combination (Kawin, 1992; Hills, 1984; Newton, 1990; Bailey, 1996). As part of research at the Multimedia Systems Research Laboratory to identify a syntax for the use of multimedia elements, an experiment was conducted to determine whether the use text or video representations of task instructions was more effective at communicating task instructions (Norris, 1996). This paper reports on the outcome of that study.</p> <p>The repair and assembly environment of a local whiteware manufacturer provided the study domain. The task chosen for the study was the replacement of a heating element in a cooktop oven. As there were no task instructions available from the manufacturer, the study was conducted in two phases: Phase I was a cognitive task analysis of service technicians to determine the steps as well as the cues and considerations of the assembly task; and in Phase II we evaluated the text and video representations of the task instructions. The next sections briefly describe the methodology and the results from the experiment.</p> <p><a href="papers/dp1997-03.pdf">Download</a> (PDF, 44 KB)</p> <hr> <a name="dp1997-04"></a><h3>97/04: Eliciting information portrayal requirements: Experiences with the critical decision method</h3> <h4>W. B. L. Wong and P. J. Sallis and D. P. O’Hare</h4> <p>This study is part of research that is investigating the notion that human performance in dynamic and intentional decision making environments, such as ambulance dispatch management, can be improved if information is portrayed in a manner that supports the decision strategies invoked to achieve the goal states of the process being controlled. Hence, in designing interfaces to support real-time dispatch management decisions, it is suggested that it would be necessary to first discover the goal states and the decision strategies invoked during the process, and then portray the required information in a manner that supports such a user group’s decision making goals and strategies. </p> <p>The purpose of this paper is to report on the experiences gleaned from the use of a cognitive task analysis technique called Critical Decision Method as an elicitation technique for determining information portrayal requirements. This paper firstly describes how the technique was used in a study to identify the goal states and decision strategies invoked during the dispatch of ambulances at the Sydney Ambulance Co-ordination Centre. The paper then describes how the interview data was analysed within and between cases in order to reveal the goal states of the ambulance dispatchers. A brief description of the resulting goal states follows, although a more detailed description of the goals states and their resulting display concepts has been reported elsewhere (Wong et al., 1996b). Finally, the paper concludes with a set of observations and lessons learnt from the use of the Critical Decision Method for developing display design concepts in dynamic intentional environments.</p> <p><strong>Keywords:</strong> display design, cognitive task analysis, Critical Decision Method, ambulance dispatch management</p> <p><a href="papers/dp1997-04.pdf">Download</a> (PDF, 100 KB)</p> <hr> <a name="dp1997-05"></a><h3>97/05: A taxonomy of spatial data integrity constraints</h3> <h4>S. K. S. Cockcroft</h4> <p>Spatial data quality has become an issue of increasing concern to researchers and practitioners in the field of Spatial Information Systems (SIS). Clearly the results of any spatial analysis are only as good as the data on which it is based. There are a number of significant areas for data quality research in SIS. These include topological consistency; consistency between spatial and attribute data; and consistency between spatial objects’ representation and their true representation on the ground. The last category may be subdivided into spatial accuracy and attribute accuracy. One approach to improving data quality is the imposition of constraints upon data entered into the database. This paper presents a taxonomy of integrity constraints as they apply to spatial database systems. Taking a cross disciplinary approach it aims to clarify some of the terms used in the database and SIS fields for data integrity management. An overview of spatial data quality concerns is given and each type of constraint is assessed regarding its approach to addressing these concerns. Some indication of an implementation method is also given for each.</p> <p><strong>Keywords:</strong> database constraints, spatial data quality, system development, rules</p> <p><a href="papers/dp1997-05.pdf">Download</a> (PDF, 128 KB)</p> <hr> <a name="dp1997-06"></a><h3>97/06: Planning and matchmaking in a multi-agent system for software integration</h3> <h4>A. Diaz and S. J. S. Cranefield and M. K. Purvis</h4> <p>Computer users employ a collection of software tools to support their day-to-day work. Often the software environment is dynamic with new tools being added as they become available and removed as they become obsolete or outdated. In today’s systems, the burden of coordinating the use of these disparate tools, remembering the correct sequence of commands, and incorporating new and modified programs into the daily work pattern lies with the user. This paper describes a multi-agent system, DALEKS, that assists users in utilizing diverse software tools for their everyday work. It manages work and information flow by providing a coordination layer that selects the appropriate tool(s) to use for each of the user’s tasks and automates the flow of information between them. This enables the user to be concerned more with what has to be done, rather than with the specifics of how to access tools and information. Here we describe the system architecture of DALEKS and illustrate it with an example in university course administration.</p> <p><strong>Keywords:</strong> agent architecture, software interoperability</p> <p><a href="papers/dp1997-06.pdf">Download</a> (PDF, 72 KB)</p> <hr> <a name="dp1997-07"></a><h3>97/07: Environments for viewpoint representations</h3> <h4>N. J. Stanger and R. T. Pascoe</h4> <p>Modelling the structure of data is an important part of any system analysis project. One problem that can arise is that there may be many differing viewpoints among the various groups that are involved in a project. Each of these viewpoints describes a perspective on the phenomenon being modelled. In this paper, we focus on the representation of developer viewpoints, and in particular on how multiple viewpoint representations may be used for database design. We examine the issues that arise when transforming between different viewpoint representations, and describe an architecture for implementing a database design environment based on these concepts.</p> <p><a href="papers/dp1997-07.pdf">Download</a> (PDF, 232 KB)</p> <hr> <a name="dp1997-08"></a><h3>97/08: Exploiting the advantages of object-oriented programming in the implementation of a database design environment</h3> <h4>N. J. Stanger and R. T. Pascoe</h4> <p>In this paper, we describe the implementation of a database design environment (Swift) that incorporates several novel features: Swift’s data modelling approach is derived from viewpoint-oriented methods; Swift is implemented in Java, which allows us to easily construct a client/server based environment; the repository is implemented using PostgreSQL, which allows us to store the actual application code in the database; and the combination of Java and PostgreSQL reduces the impedance mismatch between the application and the repository.</p> <p><a href="papers/dp1997-08.pdf">Download</a> (PDF, 108 KB)</p> <hr> <a name="dp1997-09"></a><h3>97/09: Privacy enhancing technology</h3> <h4>H. B. Wolfe</h4> <p>Privacy is one of the most fundamental of human rights. It is not a privilege granted by some authority or state. It is, in fact, necessary for each human being’s normal development and survival. Those nations who have, in the past, and currently follow the notion that they have the authority and/or moral high ground to grant or deny privacy to their citizens are notable for their other human rights violations. This paper is centered around the above premise and will offer the reader some good news and some bad news. But most important, it will put the reader on notice that our privacy is constantly under attack from one vested interest or another and that each and every one of us must be vigilant in the protection of our private matters.</p> <p>It is common in New Zealand to assume that anything secret is bad. This is an extremely naïve position to take for any intelligent individual. The old phrase “if you haven’t got anything to hide, then you shouldn’t mind…” is often used to intimidate, manipulate or coerce an individual to “confess” or share information that he/she initially believes to be confidential, private or otherwise not for sharing with others. Secrecy is not bad nor good in and of itself. It is merely a factual description of the condition of some information.</p> <p>Now for some good news. There are a number of technological devices and procedures that can be used to enhance one’s privacy. The bad news is that most, if not all, can be easily defeated with other technological advances.</p> <hr> <a name="dp1997-10"></a><h3>97/10: Applications of fuzzy logic to software metric models for development effort estimation</h3> <h4>A. R. Gray and S. G. MacDonell</h4> <p>Software metrics are measurements of the software development process and product that can be used as variables (both dependent and independent) in models for project management. The most common types of these models are those used for predicting the development effort for a software system based on size, complexity, developer characteristics, and other metrics. Despite the financial benefits from developing accurate and usable models, there are a number of problems that have not been overcome using the traditional techniques of formal and linear regression models. These include the non-linearities and interactions inherent in complex real-world development processes, the lack of stationarity in such processes, over-commitment to precisely specified values, the small quantities of data often available, and the inability to use whatever knowledge is available where exact numerical values are unknown. The use of alternative techniques, especially fuzzy logic, is investigated and some usage recommendations are made.</p> <p><a href="papers/dp1997-10.pdf">Download</a> (PDF, 88 KB)</p> <hr> <a name="dp1997-11"></a><h3>97/11: Usenet newsgroups’ profile analysis utilising standard and non-standard statistical methods</h3> <h4>P. J. Sallis and D. A. Kassabova</h4> <p>The paper explores building profiles of Newsgroups from a corpus of Usenet E-mail messages employing some standard statistical techniques as well as fuzzy clustering methods. A large set of data from a number of Newsgroups has been analysed to elicit some text attributes, such as number of words, length of sentences and other stylistic characteristics. Readability scores have also been obtained by using recognised assessment methods. These text attributes were used for building Newsgroups’ profiles. Three newsgroups, each with similar number of messages were selected from the processed sample for the analysis of two types of one-dimensional profiles, one by length of texts and the second by readability scores. Those profiles are compared with corresponding profiles of the whole sample and also with those of a group of frequent participants in the newsgroups. Fuzzy clustering is used for creating two-dimensional profiles of the same groups. An attempt is made to identify the newsgroups by defining centres of data clusters.</p> <p>It is contended that this approach to Newsgroup profile analysis could facilitate a better understanding of computer-mediated communication (CMC) on the Usenet, which is a growing medium of informal business and personal correspondence.</p> <hr> <a name="dp1997-12"></a><h3>97/12: The ecological approach to interface design in intentional domains</h3> <h4>W. B. L. Wong</h4> <p>(No abstract.)</p> <p><a href="papers/dp1997-12.pdf">Download</a> (PDF, 60 KB)</p> <hr> <a name="dp1997-13"></a><h3>97/13: Computer-mediated communication: Experiments with e-mail readability</h3> <h4>P. J. Sallis and D. A. Kassabova</h4> <p>(No abstract.)</p> <hr> <a name="dp1997-14"></a><h3>97/14: Software forensics: Extending authorship analysis techniques to computer programs</h3> <h4>A. R. Gray and P. J. Sallis and S. G. MacDonell</h4> <p>The number of occurrences and severity of computer-based attacks such as viruses and worms, logic bombs, trojan horses, computer fraud, and plagiarism of code have become of increasing concern. In an attempt to better deal with these problems it is proposed that methods for examining the authorship of computer programs are necessary. This field is referred to here as software forensics. This involves the areas of author discrimination, identification, and characterisation, as well as intent analysis. Borrowing extensively from the existing fields of linguistics and software metrics, this can be seen as a new and exciting area for forensics to extend into.</p> <p><strong>Keywords:</strong> authorship analysis, computer programming, malicious programs, software forensics, software metrics, source code</p> <hr> <a name="dp1997-15"></a><h3>97/15: A membership function selection method for fuzzy neural networks</h3> <h4>Q. Zhou and M. K. Purvis and N. K. Kasabov</h4> <p>Fuzzy neural networks provide for the extraction of fuzzy rules from artificial neural network architectures. In this paper we describe a general method, based on statistical analysis of the training data, for the selection of fuzzy membership functions to be used in connection with fuzzy neural networks. The technique is first described and then illustrated by means of two experimental examinations.</p> <p><a href="papers/dp1997-15.pdf">Download</a> (PDF, 172 KB)</p> <hr> <a name="dp9701"></a><h3>97/01: Planning and matchmaking for the interoperation of information processing agents</h3> <h4>S.J.S. Cranefield, A. Diaz and M.K. Purvis</h4> <p>In today’s open, distributed environments, there is an increasing need for systems to assist the interoperation of tools and information resources. This paper describes a multi-agent system, DALEKS, that supports such activities for the information processing domain. With this system, information processing tasks are accomplished by the use of an agent architecture incorporating task planning and information agent matchmaking components. We discuss the characteristics of planning in this domain and describe how information processing tools are specified for the planner. We also describe the manner in which planning, agent matchmaking, and information task execution are interleaved in the DALEKS system. An example application taken from the domain of university course administration is provided to illustrate some of the activities performed in this system.</p> <p><a href="papers/dp9701sc.pdf.gz">Download</a> (gzipped PDF, 71KB)</p> <hr> <a name="dp9702"></a><h3>97/02: Landscape structure and ecosystem conservation: An assessment using remote sensing</h3> <h4>S. Mann, G.L. Benwell and W.G. Lee</h4> <p>Analyses of landscape structure are used to test the hypothesis that remotely sensed images can be used as indicators of ecosystem conservation status. Vegetation types based on a classified SPOT satellite image were used in a comparison of paired, reserve (conservation area) and adjacent more human modified areas (controls). Ten reserves (average size 965 ha) were selected from upland tussock grasslands in Otago, New Zealand. While there were equal numbers of vegetation types and the size and shape distribution of patches within the overall landscapes were not significantly different, there was less of ‘target’ vegetation in controls. This was in smaller patches and fewer of these patches contained ‘core areas’. These control ‘target’ patches were also less complex in shape than those in the adjacent reserves. These measures showed that remotely sensed images can be used to derive large scale indicators of landscape conservation status. An index is proposed for assessing landscape change and conservation management issues are raised.</p> <p><a href="papers/dp9702sa.pdf.gz">Download</a> (gzipped PDF, 97KB)</p> <hr> <a name="dp9703"></a><h3>97/03: Supporting task performance: Is text or video better?</h3> <h4>B.E. Norris and W.B.L. Wong</h4> <p>Multimedia technology allows a variety of the presentation formats to portray instructions for performing a task. These formats include the use of text, graphics, video, aural, photographs, used singly or in combination (Kawin, 1992; Hills, 1984; Newton, 1990; Bailey, 1996). As part of research at the Multimedia Systems Research Laboratory to identify a syntax for the use of multimedia elements, an experiment was conducted to determine whether the use text or video representations of task instructions was more effective at communicating task instructions (Norris, 1996). This paper reports on the outcome of that study.</p> <p>The repair and assembly environment of a local whiteware manufacturer provided the study domain. The task chosen for the study was the replacement of a heating element in a cooktop oven. As there were no task instructions available from the manufacturer, the study was conducted in two phases: Phase I was a cognitive task analysis of service technicians to determine the steps as well as the cues and considerations of the assembly task; and in Phase II we evaluated the text and video representations of the task instructions. The next sections briefly describe the methodology and the results from the experiment.</p> <p><a href="papers/dp9703ww.pdf.gz">Download</a> (gzipped PDF, 32KB)</p> <hr> <a name="dp9704"></a><h3>97/04: Eliciting information portrayal requirements: Experiences with the critical decision method</h3> <h4>W.B.L. Wong, P.J. Sallis and D.P. O’Hare</h4> <p>This study is part of research that is investigating the notion that human performance in dynamic and intentional decision making environments, such as ambulance dispatch management, can be improved if information is portrayed in a manner that supports the decision strategies invoked to achieve the goal states of the process being controlled. Hence, in designing interfaces to support real-time dispatch management decisions, it is suggested that it would be necessary to first discover the goal states and the decision strategies invoked during the process, and then portray the required information in a manner that supports such a user group’s decision making goals and strategies.</p> <p>The purpose of this paper is to report on the experiences gleaned from the use of a cognitive task analysis technique called Critical Decision Method as an elicitation technique for determining information portrayal requirements. This paper firstly describes how the technique was used in a study to identify the goal states and decision strategies invoked during the dispatch of ambulances at the Sydney Ambulance Co-ordination Centre. The paper then describes how the interview data was analysed within and between cases in order to reveal the goal states of the ambulance dispatchers. A brief description of the resulting goal states follows, although a more detailed description of the goals states and their resulting display concepts has been reported elsewhere (Wong et al., 1996b). Finally, the paper concludes with a set of observations and lessons learnt from the use of the Critical Decision Method for developing display design concepts in dynamic intentional environments.</p> <p><strong>Keywords: </strong>display design, cognitive task analysis, Critical Decision Method, ambulance dispatch management</p> <p><a href="papers/dp9704ww.pdf.gz">Download</a> (gzipped PDF, 86KB)</p> <hr> <a name="dp9705"></a><h3>97/05: A taxonomy of spatial data integrity constraints</h3> <h4>S.K.S. Cockcroft</h4> <p>Spatial data quality has become an issue of increasing concern to researchers and practitioners in the field of Spatial Information Systems (SIS). Clearly the results of any spatial analysis are only as good as the data on which it is based. There are a number of significant areas for data quality research in SIS. These include topological consistency; consistency between spatial and attribute data; and consistency between spatial objects’ representation and their true representation on the ground. The last category may be subdivided into spatial accuracy and attribute accuracy. One approach to improving data quality is the imposition of constraints upon data entered into the database. This paper presents a taxonomy of integrity constraints as they apply to spatial database systems. Taking a cross disciplinary approach it aims to clarify some of the terms used in the database and SIS fields for data integrity management. An overview of spatial data quality concerns is given and each type of constraint is assessed regarding its approach to addressing these concerns. Some indication of an implementation method is also given for each.</p> <p><strong>Keywords: </strong>database constraints, spatial data quality, system development, rules</p> <p><a href="papers/dp9705so.pdf.gz">Download</a> (gzipped PDF, 112KB)</p> <hr> <a name="dp9706"></a><h3>97/06: Planning and matchmaking in a multi-agent system for software integration</h3> <h4>A. Diaz, S.J.S. Cranefield and M.K. Purvis</h4> <p>Computer users employ a collection of software tools to support their day-to-day work. Often the software environment is dynamic with new tools being added as they become available and removed as they become obsolete or outdated. In today’s systems, the burden of coordinating the use of these disparate tools, remembering the correct sequence of commands, and incorporating new and modified programs into the daily work pattern lies with the user. This paper describes a multi-agent system, DALEKS, that assists users in utilizing diverse software tools for their everyday work. It manages work and information flow by providing a coordination layer that selects the appropriate tool(s) to use for each of the user’s tasks and automates the flow of information between them. This enables the user to be concerned more with what has to be done, rather than with the specifics of how to access tools and information. Here we describe the system architecture of DALEKS and illustrate it with an example in university course administration.</p> <p><strong>Keywords: </strong>agent architecture, software interoperability</p> <p><a href="papers/dp9706sc.pdf.gz">Download</a> (gzipped PDF, 65KB)</p> <hr> <a name="dp9707"></a><h3>97/07: Environments for viewpoint representations</h3> <h4>N.J. Stanger and R.T. Pascoe</h4> <p>Modelling the structure of data is an important part of any system analysis project. One problem that can arise is that there may be many differing viewpoints among the various groups that are involved in a project. Each of these viewpoints describes a perspective on the phenomenon being modelled. In this paper, we focus on the representation of developer viewpoints, and in particular on how multiple viewpoint representations may be used for database design. We examine the issues that arise when transforming between different viewpoint representations, and describe an architecture for implementing a database design environment based on these concepts.</p> <p><a href="papers/dp9707ns.pdf.gz">Download</a> (gzipped PDF, 164KB)</p> <hr> <a name="dp9708"></a><h3>97/08: Exploiting the advantages of object-oriented programming in the implementation of a database design environment</h3> <h4>N.J. Stanger and R.T. Pascoe</h4> <p>In this paper, we describe the implementation of a database design environment (<EM>Swift</EM>) that incorporates several novel features: Swift’s data modelling approach is derived from viewpoint-oriented methods; Swift is implemented in Java, which allows us to easily construct a client/server based environment; the repository is implemented using PostgreSQL, which allows us to store the actual application code in the database; and the combination of Java and PostgreSQL reduces the impedance mismatch between the application and the repository.</p> <p><a href="papers/dp9708ns.pdf.gz">Download</a> (gzipped PDF, 95KB)</p> <hr> <a name="dp9709"></a><h3>97/09: Privacy enhancing technology</h3> <h4>H.B. Wolfe</h4> <p>Privacy is one of the most fundamental of human rights. It is not a privilege granted by some authority or state. It is, in fact, necessary for each human being’s normal development and survival. Those nations who have, in the past, and currently follow the notion that they have the authority and/or moral high ground to grant or deny privacy to their citizens are notable for their other human rights violations. This paper is centered around the above premise and will offer the reader some good news and some bad news. But most important, it will put the reader on notice that our privacy is constantly under attack from one vested interest or another and that each and every one of us must be vigilant in the protection of our private matters.</p> <p>It is common in New Zealand to assume that anything secret is bad. This is an extremely naïve position to take for any intelligent individual. The old phrase “if you haven’t got anything to hide, then you shouldn’t mind…” is often used to intimidate, manipulate or coerce an individual to “confess” or share information that he/she initially believes to be confidential, private or otherwise not for sharing with others. Secrecy is not bad nor good in and of itself. It is merely a factual description of the condition of some information.</p> <p>Now for some good news. There are a number of technological devices and procedures that can be used to enhance one’s privacy. The bad news is that most, if not all, can be easily defeated with other technological advances.</p> <hr> <a name="dp9710"></a><h3>97/10: Applications of fuzzy logic to software metric models for development effort estimation</h3> <h4>A.R. Gray and S.G. MacDonell</h4> <p>Software metrics are measurements of the software development process and product that can be used as variables (both dependent and independent) in models for project management. The most common types of these models are those used for predicting the development effort for a software system based on size, complexity, developer characteristics, and other metrics. Despite the financial benefits from developing accurate and usable models, there are a number of problems that have not been overcome using the traditional techniques of formal and linear regression models. These include the non-linearities and interactions inherent in complex real-world development processes, the lack of stationarity in such processes, over-commitment to precisely specified values, the small quantities of data often available, and the inability to use whatever knowledge is available where exact numerical values are unknown. The use of alternative techniques, especially fuzzy logic, is investigated and some usage recommendations are made.</p> <p><a href="papers/dp9710sm.pdf.gz">Download</a> (gzipped PDF, 79KB)</p> <hr> <a name="dp9711"></a><h3>97/11: Usenet newsgroups’ profile analysis utilising standard and non-standard statistical methods</h3> <h4>P.J. Sallis and D.A. Kassabova</h4> <p>The paper explores building profiles of Newsgroups from a corpus of Usenet E-mail messages employing some standard statistical techniques as well as fuzzy clustering methods. A large set of data from a number of Newsgroups has been analysed to elicit some text attributes, such as number of words, length of sentences and other stylistic characteristics. Readability scores have also been obtained by using recognised assessment methods. These text attributes were used for building Newsgroups’ profiles. Three newsgroups, each with similar number of messages were selected from the processed sample for the analysis of two types of one-dimensional profiles, one by length of texts and the second by readability scores. Those profiles are compared with corresponding profiles of the whole sample and also with those of a group of frequent participants in the newsgroups. Fuzzy clustering is used for creating two-dimensional profiles of the same groups. An attempt is made to identify the newsgroups by defining centres of data clusters.</p> <p>It is contended that this approach to Newsgroup profile analysis could facilitate a better understanding of computer-mediated communication (CMC) on the Usenet, which is a growing medium of informal business and personal correspondence.</p> <hr> <a name="dp9712"></a><h3>97/12: The ecological approach to interface design in intentional domains</h3> <h4>W.B.L. Wong</h4> <p>(No abstract.)</p> <p><a href="papers/dp9712ww.pdf.gz">Download</a> (gzipped PDF, 47KB)</p> <hr> <a name="dp9713"></a><h3>97/13: Computer-mediated communication: Experiments with e-mail readability</h3> <h4>P.J. Sallis and D.A. Kassabova</h4> <p>(No abstract.)</p> <hr> <a name="dp9714"></a><h3>97/14: Software forensics: Extending authorship analysis techniques to computer programs</h3> <h4>A.R. Gray, P.J. Sallis and S.G. MacDonell</h4> <p>The number of occurrences and severity of computer-based attacks such as viruses and worms, logic bombs, trojan horses, computer fraud, and plagiarism of code have become of increasing concern. In an attempt to better deal with these problems it is proposed that methods for examining the authorship of computer programs are necessary. This field is referred to here as <EM>software forensics</EM>. This involves the areas of author discrimination, identification, and characterisation, as well as intent analysis. Borrowing extensively from the existing fields of linguistics and software metrics, this can be seen as a new and exciting area for forensics to extend into.</p> <p><strong>Keywords: </strong>authorship analysis, computer programming, malicious programs, software forensics, software metrics, source code</p> <hr> <a name="dp9715"></a><h3>97/15: A membership function selection method for fuzzy neural networks</h3> <h4>Q. Zhou, M.K. Purvis and N.K. Kasabov</h4> <p>Fuzzy neural networks provide for the extraction of fuzzy rules from artificial neural network architectures. In this paper we describe a general method, based on statistical analysis of the training data, for the selection of fuzzy membership functions to be used in connection with fuzzy neural networks. The technique is first described and then illustrated by means of two experimental examinations.</p> <p><a href="papers/dp9715mp.pdf.gz">Download</a> (gzipped PDF, 129KB)</p>

Ignore Space Show notes View

Website/dp1997-abstracts-contents.htm

<div class="sectionTitle">Information Science Discussion Papers Series: 1997 Abstracts</div>

<hr>

<a name="dp1997-01"></a><h3>97/01: Planning and matchmaking for the interoperation of information processing agents</h3>

<h4>S. J. S. Cranefield and A. Diaz and M. K. Purvis</h4>

<p>In today&rsquo;s open, distributed environments, there is an increasing need for systems to assist the interoperation of tools and information resources. This paper describes a multi-agent system, DALEKS, that supports such activities for the information processing domain. With this system, information processing tasks are accomplished by the use of an agent architecture incorporating task planning and information agent matchmaking components. We discuss the characteristics of planning in this domain and describe how information processing tools are specified for the planner. We also describe the manner in which planning, agent matchmaking, and information task execution are interleaved in the DALEKS system. An example application taken from the domain of university course administration is provided to illustrate some of the activities performed in this system.</p>

<p><a href="papers/dp1997-01.pdf">Download</a> (PDF, 84 KB)</p>

<hr>

<a name="dp1997-02"></a><h3>97/02: Landscape structure and ecosystem conservation: An assessment using remote sensing</h3>

<h4>S. Mann and G. L. Benwell and W. G. Lee</h4>

<p>Analyses of landscape structure are used to test the hypothesis that remotely sensed images can be used as indicators of ecosystem conservation status. Vegetation types based on a classified SPOT satellite image were used in a comparison of paired, reserve (conservation area) and adjacent more human modified areas (controls). Ten reserves (average size 965 ha) were selected from upland tussock grasslands in Otago, New Zealand. While there were equal numbers of vegetation types and the size and shape distribution of patches within the overall landscapes were not significantly different, there was less of &lsquo;target&rsquo; vegetation in controls. This was in smaller patches and fewer of these patches contained &lsquo;core areas&rsquo;. These control &lsquo;target&rsquo; patches were also less complex in shape than those in the adjacent reserves. These measures showed that remotely sensed images can be used to derive large scale indicators of landscape conservation status. An index is proposed for assessing landscape change and conservation management issues are raised.</p>

<p><a href="papers/dp1997-02.pdf">Download</a> (PDF, 108 KB)</p>

<hr>

<a name="dp1997-03"></a><h3>97/03: Supporting task performance: Is text or video better?</h3>

<h4>B. E. Norris and W. B. L. Wong</h4>

<p>Multimedia technology allows a variety of the presentation formats to portray instructions for performing a task. These formats include the use of text, graphics, video, aural, photographs, used singly or in combination (Kawin, 1992; Hills, 1984; Newton, 1990; Bailey, 1996). As part of research at the Multimedia Systems Research Laboratory to identify a syntax for the use of multimedia elements, an experiment was conducted to determine whether the use text or video representations of task instructions was more effective at communicating task instructions (Norris, 1996). This paper reports on the outcome of that study.</p>

<p>The repair and assembly environment of a local whiteware manufacturer provided the study domain. The task chosen for the study was the replacement of a heating element in a cooktop oven.  As there were no task instructions available from the manufacturer, the study was conducted in two phases: Phase I was a cognitive task analysis of service technicians to determine the steps as well as the cues and considerations of the assembly task; and in Phase II we evaluated the text and video representations of the task instructions. The next sections briefly describe the methodology and the results from the experiment.</p>

<p><a href="papers/dp1997-03.pdf">Download</a> (PDF, 44 KB)</p>

<hr>

<a name="dp1997-04"></a><h3>97/04: Eliciting information portrayal requirements: Experiences with the critical decision method</h3>

<h4>W. B. L. Wong and P. J. Sallis and D. P. O&rsquo;Hare</h4>

<p>This study is part of research that is investigating the notion that human performance in dynamic and intentional decision making environments, such as ambulance dispatch management, can be improved if information is portrayed in a manner that supports the decision strategies invoked to achieve the goal states of the process being controlled. Hence, in designing interfaces to support real-time dispatch management decisions, it is suggested that it would be necessary to first discover the goal states and the decision strategies invoked during the process, and then portray the required information in a manner that supports such a user group&rsquo;s decision making goals and strategies. </p>

<p>The purpose of this paper is to report on the experiences gleaned from the use of a cognitive task analysis technique called Critical Decision Method as an elicitation technique for determining information portrayal requirements. This paper firstly describes how the technique was used in a study to identify the goal states and decision strategies invoked during the dispatch of ambulances at the Sydney Ambulance Co-ordination Centre. The paper then describes how the interview data was analysed within and between cases in order to reveal the goal states of the ambulance dispatchers. A brief description of the resulting goal states follows, although a more detailed description of the goals states and their resulting display concepts has been reported elsewhere (Wong et al., 1996b). Finally, the paper concludes with a set of observations and lessons learnt from the use of the Critical Decision Method for developing display design concepts in dynamic intentional environments.</p>

<p><strong>Keywords:</strong> display design, cognitive task analysis, Critical Decision Method, ambulance dispatch management</p>

<p><a href="papers/dp1997-04.pdf">Download</a> (PDF, 100 KB)</p>

<hr>

<a name="dp1997-05"></a><h3>97/05: A taxonomy of spatial data integrity constraints</h3>

<h4>S. K. S. Cockcroft</h4>

<p>Spatial data quality has become an issue of increasing concern to researchers and practitioners in the field of Spatial Information Systems (SIS). Clearly the results of any spatial analysis are only as good as the data on which it is based. There are a number of significant areas for data quality research in SIS. These include topological consistency; consistency between spatial and attribute data; and consistency between spatial objects&rsquo; representation and their true representation on the ground. The last category may be subdivided into spatial accuracy and attribute accuracy.  One approach to improving data quality is the imposition of constraints upon data entered into the database. This paper presents a taxonomy of integrity constraints as they apply to spatial database systems. Taking a cross disciplinary approach it aims to clarify some of the terms used in the database and SIS fields for data integrity management. An overview of spatial data quality concerns is given and each type of constraint is assessed regarding its approach to addressing these concerns. Some indication of an implementation method is also given for each.</p>

<p><strong>Keywords:</strong> database constraints, spatial data quality, system development, rules</p>

<p><a href="papers/dp1997-05.pdf">Download</a> (PDF, 128 KB)</p>

<hr>

<a name="dp1997-06"></a><h3>97/06: Planning and matchmaking in a multi-agent system for software integration</h3>

<h4>A. Diaz and S. J. S. Cranefield and M. K. Purvis</h4>

<p>Computer users employ a collection of software tools to support their day-to-day work. Often the software environment is dynamic with new tools being added as they become available and removed as they become obsolete or outdated. In today&rsquo;s systems, the burden of coordinating the use of these disparate tools, remembering the correct sequence of commands, and incorporating new and modified programs into the daily work pattern lies with the user. This paper describes a multi-agent system, DALEKS, that assists users in utilizing diverse software tools for their everyday work. It manages work and information flow by providing a coordination layer that selects the appropriate tool(s) to use for each of the user&rsquo;s tasks and automates the flow of information between them. This enables the user to be concerned more with what has to be done, rather than with the specifics of how to access tools and information. Here we describe the system architecture of DALEKS and illustrate it with an example in university course administration.</p>

<p><strong>Keywords:</strong> agent architecture, software interoperability</p>

<p><a href="papers/dp1997-06.pdf">Download</a> (PDF, 72 KB)</p>

<hr>

<a name="dp1997-07"></a><h3>97/07: Environments for viewpoint representations</h3>

<h4>N. J. Stanger and R. T. Pascoe</h4>

<p>Modelling the structure of data is an important part of any system analysis project. One problem that can arise is that there may be many differing viewpoints among the various groups that are involved in a project. Each of these viewpoints describes a perspective on the phenomenon being modelled. In this paper, we focus on the representation of developer viewpoints, and in particular on how multiple viewpoint representations may be used for database design. We examine the issues that arise when transforming between different viewpoint representations, and describe an architecture for implementing a database design environment based on these concepts.</p>

<p><a href="papers/dp1997-07.pdf">Download</a> (PDF, 232 KB)</p>

<hr>

<a name="dp1997-08"></a><h3>97/08: Exploiting the advantages of object-oriented programming in the implementation of a database design environment</h3>

<h4>N. J. Stanger and R. T. Pascoe</h4>

<p>In this paper, we describe the implementation of a database design environment (Swift) that incorporates several novel features: Swift&rsquo;s data modelling approach is derived from viewpoint-oriented methods; Swift is implemented in Java, which allows us to easily construct a client/server based environment; the repository is implemented using PostgreSQL, which allows us to store the actual application code in the database; and the combination of Java and PostgreSQL reduces the impedance mismatch between the application and the repository.</p>

<p><a href="papers/dp1997-08.pdf">Download</a> (PDF, 108 KB)</p>

<hr>

<a name="dp1997-09"></a><h3>97/09: Privacy enhancing technology</h3>

<h4>H. B. Wolfe</h4>

<p>Privacy is one of the most fundamental of human rights. It is not a privilege granted by some authority or state. It is, in fact, necessary for each human being&rsquo;s normal development and survival. Those nations who have, in the past, and currently follow the notion that they have the authority and/or moral high ground to grant or deny privacy to their citizens are notable for their other human rights violations. This paper is centered around the above premise and will offer the reader some good news and some bad news. But most important, it will put the reader on notice that our privacy is constantly under attack from one vested interest or another and that each and every one of us must be vigilant in the protection of our private matters.</p>

<p>It is common in New Zealand to assume that anything secret is bad. This is an extremely na&#239;ve position to take for any intelligent individual. The old phrase &ldquo;if you haven&rsquo;t got anything to hide, then you shouldn&rsquo;t mind&#8230;&rdquo; is often used to intimidate, manipulate or coerce an individual to &ldquo;confess&rdquo; or share information that he/she initially believes to be confidential, private or otherwise not for sharing with others. Secrecy is not bad nor good in and of itself. It is merely a factual description of the condition of some information.</p>

<p>Now for some good news. There are a number of technological devices and procedures that can be used to enhance one&rsquo;s privacy. The bad news is that most, if not all, can be easily defeated with other technological advances.</p>

<hr>

<a name="dp1997-10"></a><h3>97/10: Applications of fuzzy logic to software metric models for development effort estimation</h3>

<h4>A. R. Gray and S. G. MacDonell</h4>

<p>Software metrics are measurements of the software development process and product that can be used as variables (both dependent and independent) in models for project management. The most common types of these models are those used for predicting the development effort for a software system based on size, complexity, developer characteristics, and other metrics.  Despite the financial benefits from developing accurate and usable models, there are a number of problems that have not been overcome using the traditional techniques of formal and linear regression models. These include the non-linearities and interactions inherent in complex real-world development processes, the lack of stationarity in such processes, over-commitment to precisely specified values, the small quantities of data often available, and the inability to use whatever knowledge is available where exact numerical values are unknown. The use of alternative techniques, especially fuzzy logic, is investigated and some usage recommendations are made.</p>

<p><a href="papers/dp1997-10.pdf">Download</a> (PDF, 88 KB)</p>

<hr>

<a name="dp1997-11"></a><h3>97/11: Usenet newsgroups&rsquo; profile analysis utilising standard and non-standard statistical methods</h3>

<h4>P. J. Sallis and D. A. Kassabova</h4>

<p>The paper explores building profiles of Newsgroups from a corpus of Usenet E-mail messages employing some standard statistical techniques as well as fuzzy clustering methods. A large set of data from a number of Newsgroups has been analysed to elicit some text attributes, such as number of words, length of sentences and other stylistic characteristics. Readability scores have also been obtained by using recognised assessment methods. These text attributes were used for building Newsgroups&rsquo; profiles. Three newsgroups, each with similar number of messages were selected from the processed sample for the analysis of two types of one-dimensional profiles, one by length of texts and the second by readability scores. Those profiles are compared with corresponding profiles of the whole sample and also with those of a group of frequent participants in the newsgroups. Fuzzy clustering is used for creating two-dimensional profiles of the same groups. An attempt is made to identify the newsgroups by defining centres of data clusters.</p>

<p>It is contended that this approach to Newsgroup profile analysis could facilitate a better understanding of computer-mediated communication (CMC) on the Usenet, which is a growing medium of informal business and personal correspondence.</p>

<hr>

<a name="dp1997-12"></a><h3>97/12: The ecological approach to interface design in intentional domains</h3>

<p>(No abstract.)</p>

<p><a href="papers/dp1997-12.pdf">Download</a> (PDF, 60 KB)</p>

<hr>

<a name="dp1997-13"></a><h3>97/13: Computer-mediated communication: Experiments with e-mail readability</h3>

<h4>P. J. Sallis and D. A. Kassabova</h4>

<p>(No abstract.)</p>

<hr>

<a name="dp1997-14"></a><h3>97/14: Software forensics: Extending authorship analysis techniques to computer programs</h3>

<h4>A. R. Gray and P. J. Sallis and S. G. MacDonell</h4>

<p>The number of occurrences and severity of computer-based attacks such as viruses and worms, logic bombs, trojan horses, computer fraud, and plagiarism of code have become of increasing concern. In an attempt to better deal with these problems it is proposed that methods for examining the authorship of computer programs are necessary. This field is referred to here as software forensics. This involves the areas of author discrimination, identification, and characterisation, as well as intent analysis. Borrowing extensively from the existing fields of linguistics and software metrics, this can be seen as a new and exciting area for forensics to extend into.</p>

<p><strong>Keywords:</strong> authorship analysis, computer programming, malicious programs, software forensics, software metrics, source code</p>

<hr>

<a name="dp1997-15"></a><h3>97/15: A membership function selection method for fuzzy neural networks</h3>

<h4>Q. Zhou and M. K. Purvis and N. K. Kasabov</h4>

<p>Fuzzy neural networks provide for the extraction of fuzzy rules from artificial neural network architectures. In this paper we describe a general method, based on statistical analysis of the training data, for the selection of fuzzy membership functions to be used in connection with fuzzy neural networks. The technique is first described and then illustrated by means of two experimental examinations.</p>

<p><a href="papers/dp1997-15.pdf">Download</a> (PDF, 172 KB)</p>

<hr>

<a name="dp9701"></a><h3>97/01: Planning and matchmaking for the interoperation of information processing agents</h3>
<h4>S.J.S. Cranefield, A. Diaz and M.K. Purvis</h4>

<p>In today&#8217;s open, distributed environments, there is an increasing need for systems to assist the interoperation of tools and information resources. This paper describes a multi-agent system, DALEKS, that supports such activities for the information processing domain. With this system, information processing tasks are accomplished by the use of an agent architecture incorporating task planning and information agent matchmaking components. We discuss the characteristics of planning in this domain and describe how information processing tools are specified for the planner. We also describe the manner in which planning, agent matchmaking, and information task execution are interleaved in the DALEKS system. An example application taken from the domain of university course administration is provided to illustrate some of the activities performed in this system.</p>

<p><a href="papers/dp9701sc.pdf.gz">Download</a> (gzipped PDF, 71KB)</p>

<hr>

<a name="dp9702"></a><h3>97/02: Landscape structure and ecosystem conservation: An assessment using remote sensing</h3>
<h4>S. Mann, G.L. Benwell and W.G. Lee</h4>

<p>Analyses of landscape structure are used to test the hypothesis that remotely sensed images can be used as indicators of ecosystem conservation status. Vegetation types based on a classified SPOT satellite image were used in a comparison of paired, reserve (conservation area) and adjacent more human modified areas (controls). Ten reserves (average size 965 ha) were selected from upland tussock grasslands in Otago, New Zealand. While there were equal numbers of vegetation types and the size and shape distribution of patches within the overall landscapes were not significantly different, there was less of &#8216;target&#8217; vegetation in controls. This was in smaller patches and fewer of these patches contained &#8216;core areas&#8217;. These control &#8216;target&#8217; patches were also less complex in shape than those in the adjacent reserves. These measures showed that remotely sensed images can be used to derive large scale indicators of landscape conservation status. An index is proposed for assessing landscape change and conservation management issues are raised.</p>

<p><a href="papers/dp9702sa.pdf.gz">Download</a> (gzipped PDF, 97KB)</p>

<hr>

<a name="dp9703"></a><h3>97/03: Supporting task performance: Is text or video better?</h3>
<h4>B.E. Norris and W.B.L. Wong</h4>

<p><a href="papers/dp9703ww.pdf.gz">Download</a> (gzipped PDF, 32KB)</p>

<hr>

<a name="dp9704"></a><h3>97/04: Eliciting information portrayal requirements: Experiences with the critical decision method</h3>
<h4>W.B.L. Wong, P.J. Sallis and D.P. O&#8217;Hare</h4>

<p><strong>Keywords: </strong>display design,
cognitive task analysis,
Critical Decision Method,
ambulance dispatch management</p>

<p><a href="papers/dp9704ww.pdf.gz">Download</a> (gzipped PDF, 86KB)</p>

<hr>

<a name="dp9705"></a><h3>97/05: A taxonomy of spatial data integrity constraints</h3>
<h4>S.K.S. Cockcroft</h4>

<p>Spatial data quality has become an issue of increasing concern to researchers and practitioners in the field of Spatial Information Systems (SIS). Clearly the results of any spatial analysis are only as good as the data on which it is based. There are a number of significant areas for data quality research in SIS. These include topological consistency; consistency between spatial and attribute data; and consistency between spatial objects&#8217; representation and their true representation on the ground. The last category may be subdivided into spatial accuracy and attribute accuracy.  One approach to improving data quality is the imposition of constraints upon data entered into the database. This paper presents a taxonomy of integrity constraints as they apply to spatial database systems. Taking a cross disciplinary approach it aims to clarify some of the terms used in the database and SIS fields for data integrity management. An overview of spatial data quality concerns is given and each type of constraint is assessed regarding its approach to addressing these concerns. Some indication of an implementation method is also given for each.</p>

<p><strong>Keywords: </strong>database constraints,
spatial data quality,
system development,
rules</p>

<p><a href="papers/dp9705so.pdf.gz">Download</a> (gzipped PDF, 112KB)</p>

<hr>

<a name="dp9706"></a><h3>97/06: Planning and matchmaking in a multi-agent system for software integration</h3>
<h4>A. Diaz, S.J.S. Cranefield and M.K. Purvis</h4>

<p>Computer users employ a collection of software tools to support their day-to-day work. Often the software environment is dynamic with new tools being added as they become available and removed as they become obsolete or outdated. In today&#8217;s systems, the burden of coordinating the use of these disparate tools, remembering the correct sequence of commands, and incorporating new and modified programs into the daily work pattern lies with the user. This paper describes a multi-agent system, DALEKS, that assists users in utilizing diverse software tools for their everyday work. It manages work and information flow by providing a coordination layer that selects the appropriate tool(s) to use for each of the user&#8217;s tasks and automates the flow of information between them. This enables the user to be concerned more with what has to be done, rather than with the specifics of how to access tools and information. Here we describe the system architecture of DALEKS and illustrate it with an example in university course administration.</p>

<p><strong>Keywords: </strong>agent architecture,
software interoperability</p>

<p><a href="papers/dp9706sc.pdf.gz">Download</a> (gzipped PDF, 65KB)</p>

<hr>

<a name="dp9707"></a><h3>97/07: Environments for viewpoint representations</h3>
<h4>N.J. Stanger and R.T. Pascoe</h4>

<p><a href="papers/dp9707ns.pdf.gz">Download</a> (gzipped PDF, 164KB)</p>

<hr>

<a name="dp9708"></a><h3>97/08: Exploiting the advantages of object-oriented programming in the implementation of a database design environment</h3>
<h4>N.J. Stanger and R.T. Pascoe</h4>

<p>In this paper, we describe the implementation of a database design environment (<EM>Swift</EM>) that incorporates several novel features: Swift&#8217;s data modelling approach is derived from viewpoint-oriented methods; Swift is implemented in Java, which allows us to easily construct a client/server based environment; the repository is implemented using PostgreSQL, which allows us to store the actual application code in the database; and the combination of Java and PostgreSQL reduces the impedance mismatch between the application and the repository.</p>

<p><a href="papers/dp9708ns.pdf.gz">Download</a> (gzipped PDF, 95KB)</p>

<hr>

<a name="dp9709"></a><h3>97/09: Privacy enhancing technology</h3>
<h4>H.B. Wolfe</h4>

<p>Privacy is one of the most fundamental of human rights. It is not a privilege granted by some authority or state. It is, in fact, necessary for each human being&#8217;s normal development and survival. Those nations who have, in the past, and currently follow the notion that they have the authority and/or moral high ground to grant or deny privacy to their citizens are notable for their other human rights violations. This paper is centered around the above premise and will offer the reader some good news and some bad news. But most important, it will put the reader on notice that our privacy is constantly under attack from one vested interest or another and that each and every one of us must be vigilant in the protection of our private matters.</p>

<p>It is common in New Zealand to assume that anything secret is bad. This is an extremely na&iuml;ve position to take for any intelligent individual. The old phrase &#8220;if you haven&#8217;t got anything to hide, then you shouldn&#8217;t mind&#8230;&#8221; is often used to intimidate, manipulate or coerce an individual to &#8220;confess&#8221; or share information that he/she initially believes to be confidential, private or otherwise not for sharing with others. Secrecy is not bad nor good in and of itself. It is merely a factual description of the condition of some information.</p>

<p>Now for some good news. There are a number of technological devices and procedures that can be used to enhance one&#8217;s privacy. The bad news is that most, if not all, can be easily defeated with other technological advances.</p>

<hr>

<a name="dp9710"></a><h3>97/10: Applications of fuzzy logic to software metric models for development effort estimation</h3>
<h4>A.R. Gray and S.G. MacDonell</h4>

<p><a href="papers/dp9710sm.pdf.gz">Download</a> (gzipped PDF, 79KB)</p>

<hr>

<a name="dp9711"></a><h3>97/11: Usenet newsgroups&#8217; profile analysis utilising standard and non-standard statistical methods</h3>
<h4>P.J. Sallis and D.A. Kassabova</h4>

<p>The paper explores building profiles of Newsgroups from a corpus of Usenet E-mail messages employing some standard statistical techniques as well as fuzzy clustering methods. A large set of data from a number of Newsgroups has been analysed to elicit some text attributes, such as number of words, length of sentences and other stylistic characteristics. Readability scores have also been obtained by using recognised assessment methods. These text attributes were used for building Newsgroups&#8217; profiles. Three newsgroups, each with similar number of messages were selected from the processed sample for the analysis of two types of one-dimensional profiles, one by length of texts and the second by readability scores. Those profiles are compared with corresponding profiles of the whole sample and also with those of a group of frequent participants in the newsgroups. Fuzzy clustering is used for creating two-dimensional profiles of the same groups. An attempt is made to identify the newsgroups by defining centres of data clusters.</p>

<hr>

<a name="dp9712"></a><h3>97/12: The ecological approach to interface design in intentional domains</h3>
<h4>W.B.L. Wong</h4>

<p>(No abstract.)</p>

<p><a href="papers/dp9712ww.pdf.gz">Download</a> (gzipped PDF, 47KB)</p>

<hr>

<a name="dp9713"></a><h3>97/13: Computer-mediated communication: Experiments with e-mail readability</h3>
<h4>P.J. Sallis and D.A. Kassabova</h4>

<p>(No abstract.)</p>

<hr>

<a name="dp9714"></a><h3>97/14: Software forensics: Extending authorship analysis techniques to computer programs</h3>
<h4>A.R. Gray, P.J. Sallis and S.G. MacDonell</h4>

<p>The number of occurrences and severity of computer-based attacks such as viruses and worms, logic bombs, trojan horses, computer fraud, and plagiarism of code have become of increasing concern. In an attempt to better deal with these problems it is proposed that methods for examining the authorship of computer programs are necessary. This field is referred to here as <EM>software forensics</EM>. This involves the areas of author discrimination, identification, and characterisation, as well as intent analysis. Borrowing extensively from the existing fields of linguistics and software metrics, this can be seen as a new and exciting area for forensics to extend into.</p>

<p><strong>Keywords: </strong>authorship analysis,
computer programming,
malicious programs,
software forensics,
software metrics,
source code</p>

<hr>

<a name="dp9715"></a><h3>97/15: A membership function selection method for fuzzy neural networks</h3>
<h4>Q. Zhou, M.K. Purvis and N.K. Kasabov</h4>

<p><a href="papers/dp9715mp.pdf.gz">Download</a> (gzipped PDF, 129KB)</p>

Ignore Space Show notes View Website/dp1998-abstracts-contents.htm
<div class="sectionTitle">Information Science Discussion Papers Series: 1998 Abstracts</div> <hr> <a name="dp1998-01"></a><h3>98/01: User defined spatial business rules: Storage, management and implementation—A pipe network case study</h3> <h4>S. Cockcroft</h4> <p>The application of business rules as a means of ensuring data quality is an accepted approach in information systems development. Rules, defined by the user, are stored and manipulated by a repository or data dictionary. The repository stores the system design, including rules which result from constraints in the user’s environment, and enforces these rules at runtime. The work presented here represents the application of this approach to spatial information system design using an integrated spatial software engineering tool (ISSET) with a repository at its core.</p> <p><strong>Keywords:</strong> spatial information systems development, integrity constraints, business rules, topological relationships</p> <hr> <a name="dp1998-02"></a><h3>98/02: Electronic security</h3> <h4>H. B. Wolfe</h4> <p>Electronic security in this day and age covers a wide variety of techniques. One of the most important areas that must be addressed is that of commerce on the Internet. The Internet is an insecure medium to say the least. Every message sent must pass through many computers that are most likely controlled by unrelated and untrusted organizations before it ultimately reaches the final destination. At any one of these relays the information within the message can be scrutinized, analyzed and/or copied for later reference. There are documented and suspected instances of surveillance of Internet traffic. It has been suggested that several of the major communication switches (through which 90% or more of Internet traffic must pass) have permanent surveillance in place.</p> <p>Another insidious but less obvious fact about Internet use is that messages once sent, are not discarded nor do they disappear forever. Usually, at one or more relays, copies of messages are archived and kept for differing time periods. Most ordinary users are not aware that messages sent six months ago may be able to be retrieved. That fact could have serious legal ramifications for the sender.</p> <p>At this time cryptography is really the only effective method that can be used to protect Internet transactions and communications from unauthorized interception. Unauthorized means anyone who you have not expressly given permission to read your private communications. Cryptography is the art or science of hidden writing. Plain text (your message in readable form) is modified using an algorithm (like a mathematical equation) that requires at least one special variable (your special private key that no one else knows) to create ciphered text (your message in unreadable form). At the destination the person who the message is meant for must have the “special key” in order to be able to unlock the ciphered message.</p> <p>All encryption is not created equal nor does it necessarily provide equivalent security. It would be wrong to intimate that merely using “encryption” to protect your communication is enough. There are other factors at work here as well and they have to do with the politics of privacy. I have often heard it said in New Zealand that “if you have nothing to hide then it shouldn’t matter who reads your communications”. Of course, that opinion is naïve and does not represent reality in any meaningful way.</p> <hr> <a name="dp1998-03"></a><h3>98/03: Looking for a new AI paradigm: Evolving connectionist and fuzzy connectionist systems—Theory and applications for adaptive, on-line intelligent systems</h3> <h4>N. Kasabov</h4> <p>The paper introduces one paradigm of neuro-fuzzy techniques and an approach to building on-line, adaptive intelligent systems. This approach is called evolving connectionist systems (ECOS). ECOS evolve through incremental, on-line learning, both supervised and unsupervised. They can accommodate new input data, including new features, new classes, etc. The ECOS framework is presented and illustrated on a particular type of evolving neural networks—evolving fuzzy neural networks. ECOS are three to six orders of magnitude faster than the multilayer perceptrons, or the fuzzy neural networks, trained with the backpropagation algorithm, or with a genetic programming technique. ECOS belong to the new generation of adaptive intelligent systems. This is illustrated on several real world problems for adaptive, on-line classification, prediction, decision making and control: phoneme-based speech recognition; moving person identification; wastewater flow time-series prediction and control; intelligent agents; financial time series prediction and control. The principles of recurrent ECOS and reinforcement learning are outlined.</p> <p><strong>Keywords:</strong> evolving neuro-fuzzy systems, fuzzy neural networks, on-line adaptive control, on-line decision making, intelligent agents</p> <hr> <a name="dp1998-04"></a><h3>98/04: Connectionist methods for classification of fruit populations based on visible-near infrared spectrophotometry data</h3> <h4>J. Kim and N. Kasabov and A. Mowat and P. Poole</h4> <p>Variation in fruit maturation can influence harvest timing and duration, post-harvest fruit attributes and consumer acceptability. Present methods of managing and identifying lines of fruit with specific attributes both in commercial fruit production systems and breeding programs are limited by a lack of suitable tools to characterise fruit attributes at different stages of development in order to predict fruit behaviour at harvest, during storage or in relation to consumer acceptance. With visible-near infrared (VNIR) reflectance spectroscopy a vast array of analytical information is collected rapidly with a minimum of sample pre-treatment. VNIR spectra contain information about the amount and the composition of constituents within fruit. This information can be obtained from intact fruit at different stage of development. Spectroscopic data is processed using chemometrics techniques such as principal component analysis (PCA), discriminant analysis and/or connectionist approaches in order to extract qualitative and quantitative information for classification and predictive purposes. In this paper, we will illustrate the effectiveness of a model, connectionist and hybrid approaches, for fruit quality classification problems.</p> <hr> <a name="dp1998-05"></a><h3>98/05: A fuzzy neural network model for the estimation of the feeding rate to an anaerobic waste water treatment process</h3> <h4>J. Kim and R. Kozma and N. Kasabov and B. Gols and M. Geerink and T. Cohen</h4> <p>Biological processes are among the most challenging to predict and control. It has been recognised that the development of an intelligent system for the recognition, prediction and control of process states in a complex, nonlinear biological process control is difficult. Such unpredictable system behaviour requires an advanced, intelligent control system which learns from observations of the process dynamics and takes appropriate control action to avoid collapse of the biological culture. In the present study, a hybrid system called fuzzy neural network is considered, where the role of the fuzzy neural network is to estimate the correct feed demand as a function of the process responses. The feed material is an organic and/or inorganic mixture of chemical compounds for the bacteria to grow on. Small amounts of the feed sources must be added and the response of the bacteria must be measured. This is no easy task because the process sensors used are non-specific and their response would vary during the developmental stages of the process. This hybrid control strategy retains the advantages of both neural networks and fuzzy control. These strengths include fast and accurate learning, good generalisation capabilities, excellent explanation facilities in the form of semantically meaningful fuzzy rules, and the ability to accommodate both numerical data and existing expert knowledge about the problem under consideration. The application to the estimation and prediction of the correct feed demand shows the power of this strategy as compared with conventional fuzzy control.</p> <p><strong>Keywords:</strong> fuzzy neural networks, hybrid learning, knowledge extraction and insertion, estimation, biological process and control, bacterial system, total organic carbon (TOC)</p> <hr> <a name="dp1998-06"></a><h3>98/06: Induction of labour for post term pregnancy: An observational study</h3> <h4>E. Parry and D. Parry and N. Pattison</h4> <p>The aim of the study was to compare the 2 management protocols for postterm pregnancy; elective induction of labour at 42 weeks’ gestation and continuing the pregnancy with fetal monitoring while awaiting spontaneous labour. A retrospective observational study compared a cohort of 360 pregnancies where labour was induced with 486 controls. All pregnancies were postterm (>294 days) by an early ultrasound scan. Induction of labour was achieved with either prostaglandin vaginal pessaries or gel or forewater rupture and Syntocinon infusion. The control group consisted of women with postterm pregnancies who were not induced routinely and who usually had twice weekly fetal assessment with cardiotocography and/or ultrasound. Women who had their labour induced differed from those who awaited spontaneous labour. Nulliparas (OR 1.54; 95% CI 1.24-1.83) and married women (OR 1.76; 95% CI 1.45-2.06) were more likely to have their labour induced. There was no association between the type of caregiver and induction of labour. Induction of labour was associated with a reduction in the incidence of normal vaginal delivery (OR 0.63, 95% CI 0.43-0.92) and an increased incidence of operative vaginal delivery (OR 1.46; 95% CI 1.34-2.01). There was no difference in the overall rate of Caesarean section. There was no difference in fetal or neonatal outcomes. Parity had a major influence on delivery outcomes from a policy of induction of labour. Nulliparas in the induced group had worse outcomes with only 43% achieving a normal vaginal delivery (OR 0.78, 95% CI 0.65-0.95). In contrast for multiparas, the induced group had better outcomes with less Caesarean sections (OR 0.88, 95% CI 0.81-0.96). This retrospective observational study of current clinical practice shows that induction of labour for postterm pregnancy appears to be favoured by nulliparous married women. It suggests that induction of labour may improve delivery outcomes for multigravas but has an adverse effect for nulliparas.</p> <hr> <a name="dp1998-07"></a><h3>98/07: Automating information processing tasks: An agent-based architecture</h3> <h4>S. Cranefield and B. McKinlay and E. Moreale and M. K. Purvis</h4> <p>This paper describes an agent-based architecture designed to provide automation support for users who perform information processing tasks using a collection of distributed and disparate software tools and on-line resources. The architecture extends previous work on agent-based software interoperability. The unique features of the information processing domain compared to distributed information retrieval are discussed and a novel extension of hierarchical task network (HTN) planning to support this domain is presented.</p> <p><a href="papers/dp1998-07.pdf">Download</a> (PDF, 172 KB)</p> <hr> <a name="dp1998-08"></a><h3>98/08: Spatial isomorphism</h3> <h4>A. Holt and S. MacDonell and G. Benwell</h4> <p>This research continues with current innovative geocomputational research trends that aim to provide enhanced spatial analysis tools. The coupling of case-based reasoning (CBR) with GIS provides the focus of this paper. This coupling allows the retrieval, reuse, revision and retention of previous similar spatial cases. CBR is therefore used to develop more complex spatial data modelling methods (by using the CBR modules for improved spatial data manipulation) and provide enhanced exploratory geographical analysis tools (to find and assess certain patterns and relationships that may exist in spatial databases). This paper details the manner in which spatial similarity is assessed, for the purpose of re-using previous spatial cases. The authors consider similarity assessment a useful concept for retrieving and analysing spatial information as it may help researchers describe and explore a certain phenomena, its immediate environment and its relationships to other phenomena. This paper will address the following questions: What makes phenomena similar? What is the definition of similarity? What principles govern similarity? and How can similarity be measured?<br/> <br/>Generally, phenomena are similar when they share common attributes and circumstances. The degree of similarity depends on the type and number of commonalties they share. Within this research, similarity is examined from a spatial perspective. Spatial similarity is broadly defined by the authors as the spatial matching and ranking according to a specific context and scale. More specifically, similarity is governed by context (function, use, reason, goal, users frame-of mind), scale (coarse or fine level), repository (the application, local domain, site and data specifics), techniques (the available technology for searching, retrieving and recognising data) and measure and ranking systems.<br/> <br/>The degree of match is the score between a source and a target. In spatial matching a source and a target could be a pixel, region or coverage. The principles that govern spatial similarity are not just the attributes but also the relationships between two phenomena. This is one reason why CBR coupled with a GIS is fortuitous. A GIS is used symbiotically to extract spatial variables that can be used by CBR to determine similar spatial relations between phenomena. These spatial relations are used to assess the similarity between two phenomena (for example proximity and neighborhood analysis). Developing the concept of spatial similarity could assist with analysing spatial databases by developing techniques to match similar areas. This would help maximise the information that could be extracted from spatial databases. From an exploratory perspective, spatial similarity serves as an organising principle by which spatial phenomena are classified, relationships identified and generalisations made from previous bona fide experiences or knowledge. This paper will investigate the spatial similarity concept.</p> <p><a href="papers/dp1998-08.pdf">Download</a> (PDF, 456 KB)</p> <hr> <a name="dp1998-09"></a><h3>98/09: Development of a generic system for modelling spatial processes</h3> <h4>A. Marr and R. Pascoe and G. Benwell and S. Mann</h4> <p>In this paper is proposed a structure for the development of a generic graphical system for modelling spatial processes (SMSP). This system seeks to integrate the spatial data handling operations of a GIS with specialist numerical modelling functionality, by the description of the processes involved. A conceptual framework is described, the foundation of which are six defined modules (or services) that are considered a minimum requirement for basic system operation. The services are identified following description of the three key components to systems integration, and the examination of the preferred integrating structure. The relationship of the integration components to sample commentary on the future requirements of integration is discussed, and the benefits and deficiencies of an implemented system for modelling spatial processes are noted.</p> <p><a href="papers/dp1998-09.pdf">Download</a> (PDF, 644 KB)</p> <hr> <a name="dp1998-10"></a><h3>98/10: Neuro-fuzzy methods for environmental modelling</h3> <h4>M. K. Purvis and N. Kasabov and G. Benwell and Q. Zhou and F. Zhang</h4> <p>This paper describes combined approaches of data preparation, neural network analysis, and fuzzy inferencing techniques (which we collectively call neuro-fuzzy engineering) to the problem of environmental modelling. The overall neuro-fuzzy architecture is presented, and specific issues associated with environmental modelling are discussed. A case study that shows how these techniques can be combined is presented for illustration. We also describe our current software implementation that incorporates neuro-fuzzy analytical tools into commercially available geographical information system software.</p> <p><a href="papers/dp1998-10.pdf">Download</a> (PDF, 384 KB)</p> <div class="sectionTitle">Information Science Discussion Papers Series: 1998 Abstracts</div> <hr> <a name="dp9801"></a><h3>98/01: User defined spatial business rules: Storage, management and implementation—A pipe network case study</h3> <h4>S. Cockcroft</h4> <p>The application of business rules as a means of ensuring data quality is an accepted approach in information systems development. Rules, defined by the user, are stored and manipulated by a repository or data dictionary. The repository stores the system design, including rules which result from constraints in the user’s environment, and enforces these rules at runtime. The work presented here represents the application of this approach to spatial information system design using an integrated spatial software engineering tool (ISSET) with a repository at its core.</p> <p><strong>Keywords: </strong>spatial information systems development, integrity constraints, business rules, topological relationships</p> <hr> <a name="dp9802"></a><h3>98/02: Electronic Security</h3> <h4>H.B. Wolfe</h4> <p>Electronic security in this day and age covers a wide variety of techniques. One of the most important areas that must be addressed is that of commerce on the Internet. The Internet is an insecure medium to say the least. Every message sent must pass through many computers that are most likely controlled by unrelated and untrusted organizations before it ultimately reaches the final destination. At any one of these relays the information within the message can be scrutinized, analyzed and/or copied for later reference. There are documented and suspected instances of surveillance of Internet traffic. It has been suggested that several of the major communication switches (through which 90% or more of Internet traffic must pass) have permanent surveillance in place.</p> <p>Another insidious but less obvious fact about Internet use is that messages once sent, are not discarded nor do they disappear forever. Usually, at one or more relays, copies of messages are archived and kept for differing time periods. Most ordinary users are not aware that messages sent six months ago may be able to be retrieved. That fact could have serious legal ramifications for the sender.</p> <p>At this time cryptography is really the only effective method that can be used to protect Internet transactions and communications from unauthorized interception. Unauthorized means <STRONG><U>anyone</U></STRONG> who you have not expressly given permission to read your private communications. Cryptography is the art or science of hidden writing. Plain text (your message in readable form) is modified using an algorithm (like a mathematical equation) that requires at least one special variable (your special private key that no one else knows) to create ciphered text (your message in unreadable form). At the destination the person who the message is meant for must have the “special key” in order to be able to unlock the ciphered message.</p> <p>All encryption is not created equal nor does it necessarily provide equivalent security. It would be wrong to intimate that merely using “encryption” to protect your communication is enough. There are other factors at work here as well and they have to do with the politics of privacy. I have often heard it said in New Zealand that “if you have nothing to hide then it shouldn’t matter who reads your communications”. Of course, that opinion is naïve and does not represent reality in any meaningful way.</p> <hr> <a name="dp9803"></a><h3>98/03: Looking for a new AI paradigm: Evolving connectionist and fuzzy connectionist systems—Theory and applications for adaptive, on-line intelligent systems</h3> <h4>N. Kasabov</h4> <p>The paper introduces one paradigm of neuro-fuzzy techniques and an approach to building on-line, adaptive intelligent systems. This approach is called evolving connectionist systems (ECOS). ECOS evolve through incremental, on-line learning, both supervised and unsupervised. They can accommodate new input data, including new features, new classes, etc. The ECOS framework is presented and illustrated on a particular type of evolving neural networks—evolving fuzzy neural networks. ECOS are three to six orders of magnitude faster than the multilayer perceptrons, or the fuzzy neural networks, trained with the backpropagation algorithm, or with a genetic programming technique. ECOS belong to the new generation of adaptive intelligent systems. This is illustrated on several real world problems for adaptive, on-line classification, prediction, decision making and control: phoneme-based speech recognition; moving person identification; wastewater flow time-series prediction and control; intelligent agents; financial time series prediction and control. The principles of recurrent ECOS and reinforcement learning are outlined.</p> <p><strong>Keywords: </strong>evolving neuro-fuzzy systems, fuzzy neural networks, on-line adaptive control, on-line decision making, intelligent agents</p> <hr> <a name="dp9804"></a><h3>98/04: Connectionist methods for classification of fruit populations based on visible-near infrared spectrophotometry data</h3> <h4>J. Kim, N. Kasabov, A. Mowat and P. Poole</h4> <p>Variation in fruit maturation can influence harvest timing and duration, post-harvest fruit attributes and consumer acceptability. Present methods of managing and identifying lines of fruit with specific attributes both in commercial fruit production systems and breeding programs are limited by a lack of suitable tools to characterise fruit attributes at different stages of development in order to predict fruit behaviour at harvest, during storage or in relation to consumer acceptance. With visible-near infrared (VNIR) reflectance spectroscopy a vast array of analytical information is collected rapidly with a minimum of sample pre-treatment. VNIR spectra contain information about the amount and the composition of constituents within fruit. This information can be obtained from intact fruit at different stage of development. Spectroscopic data is processed using chemometrics techniques such as principal component analysis (PCA), discriminant analysis and/or connectionist approaches in order to extract qualitative and quantitative information for classification and predictive purposes. In this paper, we will illustrate the effectiveness of a model, connectionist and hybrid approaches, for fruit quality classification problems.</p> <hr> <a name="dp9805"></a><h3>98/05: A fuzzy neural network model for the estimation of the feeding rate to an anaerobic waste water treatment process</h3> <h4>J. Kim, R. Kozma, N. Kasabov, B. Gols, M. Geerink and T. Cohen</h4> <p>Biological processes are among the most challenging to predict and control. It has been recognised that the development of an intelligent system for the recognition, prediction and control of process states in a complex, nonlinear biological process control is difficult. Such unpredictable system behaviour requires an advanced, intelligent control system which learns from observations of the process dynamics and takes appropriate control action to avoid collapse of the biological culture. In the present study, a hybrid system called fuzzy neural network is considered, where the role of the fuzzy neural network is to estimate the correct feed demand as a function of the process responses. The feed material is an organic and/or inorganic mixture of chemical compounds for the bacteria to grow on. Small amounts of the feed sources must be added and the response of the bacteria must be measured. This is no easy task because the process sensors used are non-specific and their response would vary during the developmental stages of the process. This hybrid control strategy retains the advantages of both neural networks and fuzzy control. These strengths include fast and accurate learning, good generalisation capabilities, excellent explanation facilities in the form of semantically meaningful fuzzy rules, and the ability to accommodate both numerical data and existing expert knowledge about the problem under consideration. The application to the estimation and prediction of the correct feed demand shows the power of this strategy as compared with conventional fuzzy control.</p> <p><strong>Keywords: </strong>fuzzy neural networks, hybrid learning, knowledge extraction and insertion, estimation, biological process and control, bacterial system, total organic carbon (TOC)</p> <hr> <a name="dp9806"></a><h3>98/06: Induction of labour for post term pregnancy: An observational study</h3> <h4>E. Parry, D. Parry and N. Pattison</h4> <p>The aim of the study was to compare the 2 management protocols for postterm pregnancy; elective induction of labour at 42 weeks’ gestation and continuing the pregnancy with fetal monitoring while awaiting spontaneous labour. A retrospective observational study compared a cohort of 360 pregnancies where labour was induced with 486 controls. All pregnancies were postterm (>294 days) by an early ultrasound scan. Induction of labour was achieved with either prostaglandin vaginal pessaries or gel or forewater rupture and Syntocinon infusion. The control group consisted of women with postterm pregnancies who were not induced routinely and who usually had twice weekly fetal assessment with cardiotocography and/or ultrasound. Women who had their labour induced differed from those who awaited spontaneous labour. Nulliparas (OR 1.54; 95% CI 1.24-1.83) and married women (OR 1.76; 95% CI 1.45-2.06) were more likely to have their labour induced. There was no association between the type of caregiver and induction of labour. Induction of labour was associated with a reduction in the incidence of normal vaginal delivery (OR 0.63, 95% CI 0.43-0.92) and an increased incidence of operative vaginal delivery (OR 1.46; 95% CI 1.34-2.01). There was no difference in the overall rate of Caesarean section. There was no difference in fetal or neonatal outcomes. Parity had a major influence on delivery outcomes from a policy of induction of labour. Nulliparas in the induced group had worse outcomes with only 43% achieving a normal vaginal delivery (OR 0.78, 95% CI 0.65-0.95). In contrast for multiparas, the induced group had better outcomes with less Caesarean sections (OR 0.88, 95% CI 0.81-0.96). This retrospective observational study of current clinical practice shows that induction of labour for postterm pregnancy appears to be favoured by nulliparous married women. <STRONG>It suggests that induction of labour may improve delivery outcomes for multigravas but has an adverse effect for nulliparas.</STRONG></p> <hr> <a name="dp9807"></a><h3>98/07: Automating information processing tasks: An agent-based architecture</h3> <h4>S. Cranefield, B. McKinlay, E. Moreale and M.K. Purvis</h4> <p>This paper describes an agent-based architecture designed to provide automation support for users who perform information processing tasks using a collection of distributed and disparate software tools and on-line resources. The architecture extends previous work on agent-based software interoperability. The unique features of the information processing domain compared to distributed information retrieval are discussed and a novel extension of hierarchical task network (HTN) planning to support this domain is presented.</p> <p><a href="papers/dp9807sc.pdf.gz">Download</a> (gzipped PDF, 128KB)</p> <hr> <a name="dp9808"></a><h3>98/08: Spatial isomorphism</h3> <h4>A. Holt, S. MacDonell and G. Benwell</h4> <p>This research continues with current innovative geocomputational research trends that aim to provide enhanced spatial analysis tools. The coupling of case-based reasoning (CBR) with GIS provides the focus of this paper. This coupling allows the retrieval, reuse, revision and retention of previous similar spatial cases. CBR is therefore used to develop more complex spatial data modelling methods (by using the CBR modules for improved spatial data manipulation) and provide enhanced exploratory geographical analysis tools (to find and assess certain patterns and relationships that may exist in spatial databases). This paper details the manner in which spatial similarity is assessed, for the purpose of re-using previous spatial cases. The authors consider similarity assessment a useful concept for retrieving and analysing spatial information as it may help researchers describe and explore a certain phenomena, its immediate environment and its relationships to other phenomena. This paper will address the following questions: What makes phenomena similar? What is the definition of similarity? What principles govern similarity? and How can similarity be measured?</p> <p>Generally, phenomena are similar when they share common attributes and circumstances. The degree of similarity depends on the type and number of commonalties they share. Within this research, similarity is examined from a spatial perspective. Spatial similarity is broadly defined by the authors <EM>as the spatial matching and ranking according to a specific context and scale</EM>. More specifically, similarity is governed by context (function, use, reason, goal, users frame-of mind), scale (coarse or fine level), repository (the application, local domain, site and data specifics), techniques (the available technology for searching, retrieving and recognising data) and measure and ranking systems.</p> <p>The degree of match is the score between a source and a target. In spatial matching a source and a target could be a pixel, region or coverage. The principles that govern spatial similarity are not just the attributes but also the relationships between two phenomena. This is one reason why CBR coupled with a GIS is fortuitous. A GIS is used symbiotically to extract spatial variables that can be used by CBR to determine similar spatial relations between phenomena. These spatial relations are used to assess the similarity between two phenomena (for example proximity and neighborhood analysis). Developing the concept of spatial similarity could assist with analysing spatial databases by developing techniques to match similar areas. This would help maximise the information that could be extracted from spatial databases. From an exploratory perspective, spatial similarity serves as an organising principle by which spatial phenomena are classified, relationships identified and generalisations made from previous bona fide experiences or knowledge. This paper will investigate the spatial similarity concept.</p> <p><a href="papers/dp9808ah.pdf.gz">Download</a> (gzipped PDF, 358KB)</p> <hr> <a name="dp9809"></a><h3>98/09: Development of a generic system for modelling spatial processes</h3> <h4>A. Marr, R. Pascoe, G. Benwell and S. Mann</h4> <p>In this paper is proposed a structure for the development of a generic graphical system for modelling spatial processes (SMSP). This system seeks to integrate the spatial data handling operations of a GIS with specialist numerical modelling functionality, by the description of the processes involved. A conceptual framework is described, the foundation of which are six defined modules (or <EM>services</EM>) that are considered a minimum requirement for basic system operation. The services are identified following description of the three key components to systems integration, and the examination of the preferred integrating structure. The relationship of the integration components to sample commentary on the future requirements of integration is discussed, and the benefits and deficiencies of an implemented system for modelling spatial processes are noted.</p> <p><a href="papers/dp9809am.pdf.gz">Download</a> (gzipped PDF, 511KB)</p> <hr> <a name="dp9810"></a><h3>98/10: Neuro-fuzzy methods for environmental modelling</h3> <h4>M.K. Purvis, N. Kasabov, G. Benwell, Q. Zhou and F. Zhang</h4> <p>This paper describes combined approaches of data preparation, neural network analysis, and fuzzy inferencing techniques (which we collectively call neuro-fuzzy engineering) to the problem of environmental modelling. The overall neuro-fuzzy architecture is presented, and specific issues associated with environmental modelling are discussed. A case study that shows how these techniques can be combined is presented for illustration. We also describe our current software implementation that incorporates neuro-fuzzy analytical tools into commercially available geographical information system software.</p> <p><a href="papers/dp9810mp.pdf.gz">Download</a> (gzipped PDF, 346KB)</p>

Ignore Space Show notes View

Website/dp1998-abstracts-contents.htm

<div class="sectionTitle">Information Science Discussion Papers Series: 1998 Abstracts</div>

<hr>

<a name="dp1998-01"></a><h3>98/01: User defined spatial business rules: Storage, management and implementation&mdash;A pipe network case study</h3>

<h4>S. Cockcroft</h4>

<p>The application of business rules as a means of ensuring data quality is an accepted approach in information systems development. Rules, defined by the user, are stored and manipulated by a repository or data dictionary. The repository stores the system design, including rules which result from constraints in the user&rsquo;s environment, and enforces these rules at runtime. The work presented here represents the application of this approach to spatial information system design using an integrated spatial software engineering tool (ISSET) with a repository at its core.</p>

<p><strong>Keywords:</strong> spatial information systems development, integrity constraints, business rules, topological relationships</p>

<hr>

<a name="dp1998-02"></a><h3>98/02: Electronic security</h3>

<h4>H. B. Wolfe</h4>

<p>Electronic security in this day and age covers a wide variety of techniques. One of the most important areas that must be addressed is that of commerce on the Internet. The Internet is an insecure medium to say the least. Every message sent must pass through many computers that are most likely controlled by unrelated and untrusted organizations before it ultimately reaches the final destination. At any one of these relays the information within the message can be scrutinized, analyzed and/or copied for later reference. There are documented and suspected instances of surveillance of Internet traffic. It has been suggested that several of the major communication switches (through which 90% or more of Internet traffic must pass) have permanent surveillance in place.</p>

<p>Another insidious but less obvious fact about Internet use is that messages once sent, are not discarded nor do they disappear forever. Usually, at one or more relays, copies of messages are archived and kept for differing time periods. Most ordinary users are not aware that messages sent six months ago may be able to be retrieved. That fact could have serious legal ramifications for the sender.</p>

<p>At this time cryptography is really the only effective method that can be used to protect Internet transactions and communications from unauthorized interception. Unauthorized means anyone who you have not expressly given permission to read your private communications. Cryptography is the art or science of hidden writing. Plain text (your message in readable form) is modified using an algorithm (like a mathematical equation) that requires at least one special variable (your special private key that no one else knows) to create ciphered text (your message in unreadable form). At the destination the person who the message is meant for must have the &ldquo;special key&rdquo; in order to be able to unlock the ciphered message.</p>

<p>All encryption is not created equal nor does it necessarily provide equivalent security. It would be wrong to intimate that merely using &ldquo;encryption&rdquo; to protect your communication is enough. There are other factors at work here as well and they have to do with the politics of privacy. I have often heard it said in New Zealand that &ldquo;if you have nothing to hide then it shouldn&rsquo;t matter who reads your communications&rdquo;. Of course, that opinion is na&#239;ve and does not represent reality in any meaningful way.</p>

<hr>

<a name="dp1998-03"></a><h3>98/03: Looking for a new AI paradigm: Evolving connectionist and fuzzy connectionist systems&mdash;Theory and applications for adaptive, on-line intelligent systems</h3>

<h4>N. Kasabov</h4>

<p>The paper introduces one paradigm of neuro-fuzzy techniques and an approach to building on-line, adaptive intelligent systems. This approach is called evolving connectionist systems (ECOS). ECOS evolve through incremental, on-line learning, both supervised and unsupervised. They can accommodate new input data, including new features, new classes, etc. The ECOS framework is presented and illustrated on a particular type of evolving neural networks&mdash;evolving fuzzy neural networks. ECOS are three to six orders of magnitude faster than the multilayer perceptrons, or the fuzzy neural networks, trained with the backpropagation algorithm, or with a genetic programming technique. ECOS belong to the new generation of adaptive intelligent systems. This is illustrated on several real world problems for adaptive, on-line classification, prediction, decision making and control: phoneme-based speech recognition; moving person identification; wastewater flow time-series prediction and control; intelligent agents; financial time series prediction and control. The principles of recurrent ECOS and reinforcement learning are outlined.</p>

<p><strong>Keywords:</strong> evolving neuro-fuzzy systems, fuzzy neural networks, on-line adaptive control, on-line decision making, intelligent agents</p>

<hr>

<a name="dp1998-04"></a><h3>98/04: Connectionist methods for classification of fruit populations based on visible-near infrared spectrophotometry data</h3>

<h4>J. Kim and N. Kasabov and A. Mowat and P. Poole</h4>

<p>Variation in fruit maturation can influence harvest timing and duration, post-harvest fruit attributes and consumer acceptability. Present methods of managing and identifying lines of fruit with specific attributes both in commercial fruit production systems and breeding programs are limited by a lack of suitable tools to characterise fruit attributes at different stages of development in order to predict fruit behaviour at harvest, during storage or in relation to consumer acceptance. With visible-near infrared (VNIR) reflectance spectroscopy a vast array of analytical information is collected rapidly with a minimum of sample pre-treatment. VNIR spectra contain information about the amount and the composition of constituents within fruit. This information can be obtained from intact fruit at different stage of development. Spectroscopic data is processed using chemometrics techniques such as principal component analysis (PCA), discriminant analysis and/or connectionist approaches in order to extract qualitative and quantitative information for classification and predictive purposes. In this paper, we will illustrate the effectiveness of a model, connectionist and hybrid approaches, for fruit quality classification problems.</p>

<hr>

<a name="dp1998-05"></a><h3>98/05: A fuzzy neural network model for the estimation of the feeding rate to an anaerobic waste water treatment process</h3>

<h4>J. Kim and R. Kozma and N. Kasabov and B. Gols and M. Geerink and T. Cohen</h4>

<p>Biological processes are among the most challenging to predict and control. It has been recognised that the development of an intelligent system for the recognition, prediction and control of process states in a complex, nonlinear biological process control is difficult. Such unpredictable system behaviour requires an advanced, intelligent control system which learns from observations of the process dynamics and takes appropriate control action to avoid collapse of the biological culture. In the present study, a hybrid system called fuzzy neural network is considered, where the role of the fuzzy neural network is to estimate the correct feed demand as a function of the process responses. The feed material is an organic and/or inorganic mixture of chemical compounds for the bacteria to grow on. Small amounts of the feed sources must be added and the response of the bacteria must be measured. This is no easy task because the process sensors used are non-specific and their response would vary during the developmental stages of the process. This hybrid control strategy retains the advantages of both neural networks and fuzzy control. These strengths include fast and accurate learning, good generalisation capabilities, excellent explanation facilities in the form of semantically meaningful fuzzy rules, and the ability to accommodate both numerical data and existing expert knowledge about the problem under consideration. The application to the estimation and prediction of the correct feed demand shows the power of this strategy as compared with conventional fuzzy control.</p>

<p><strong>Keywords:</strong> fuzzy neural networks, hybrid learning, knowledge extraction and insertion, estimation, biological process and control, bacterial system, total organic carbon (TOC)</p>

<hr>

<a name="dp1998-06"></a><h3>98/06: Induction of labour for post term pregnancy: An observational study</h3>

<h4>E. Parry and D. Parry and N. Pattison</h4>

<p>The aim of the study was to compare the 2 management protocols for postterm pregnancy; elective induction of labour at 42 weeks&rsquo; gestation and continuing the pregnancy with fetal monitoring while awaiting spontaneous labour. A retrospective observational study compared a cohort of 360 pregnancies where labour was induced with 486 controls. All pregnancies were postterm (&gt;294 days) by an early ultrasound scan. Induction of labour was achieved with either prostaglandin vaginal pessaries or gel or forewater rupture and Syntocinon infusion. The control group consisted of women with postterm pregnancies who were not induced routinely and who usually had twice weekly fetal assessment with cardiotocography and/or ultrasound. Women who had their labour induced differed from those who awaited spontaneous labour. Nulliparas (OR 1.54; 95% CI 1.24-1.83) and married women (OR 1.76; 95% CI 1.45-2.06) were more likely to have their labour induced. There was no association between the type of caregiver and induction of labour. Induction of labour was associated with a reduction in the incidence of normal vaginal delivery (OR 0.63, 95% CI 0.43-0.92) and an increased incidence of operative vaginal delivery (OR 1.46; 95% CI 1.34-2.01). There was no difference in the overall rate of Caesarean section. There was no difference in fetal or neonatal outcomes. Parity had a major influence on delivery outcomes from a policy of induction of labour. Nulliparas in the induced group had worse outcomes with only 43% achieving a normal vaginal delivery (OR 0.78, 95% CI 0.65-0.95). In contrast for multiparas, the induced group had better outcomes with less Caesarean sections (OR 0.88, 95% CI 0.81-0.96). This retrospective observational study of current clinical practice shows that induction of labour for postterm pregnancy appears to be favoured by nulliparous married women. It suggests that induction of labour may improve delivery outcomes for multigravas but has an adverse effect for nulliparas.</p>

<hr>

<a name="dp1998-07"></a><h3>98/07: Automating information processing tasks: An agent-based architecture</h3>

<h4>S. Cranefield and B. McKinlay and E. Moreale and M. K. Purvis</h4>

<p>This paper describes an agent-based architecture designed to provide automation support for users who perform information processing tasks using a collection of distributed and disparate software tools and on-line resources. The architecture extends previous work on agent-based software interoperability. The unique features of the information processing domain compared to distributed information retrieval are discussed and a novel extension of hierarchical task network (HTN) planning to support this domain is presented.</p>

<p><a href="papers/dp1998-07.pdf">Download</a> (PDF, 172 KB)</p>

<hr>

<a name="dp1998-08"></a><h3>98/08: Spatial isomorphism</h3>

<h4>A. Holt and S. MacDonell and G. Benwell</h4>

<p>This research continues with current innovative geocomputational research trends that aim to provide enhanced spatial analysis tools. The coupling of case-based reasoning (CBR) with GIS provides the focus of this paper. This coupling allows the retrieval, reuse, revision and retention of previous similar spatial cases. CBR is therefore used to develop more complex spatial data modelling methods (by using the CBR modules for improved spatial data manipulation) and provide enhanced exploratory geographical analysis tools (to find and assess certain patterns and relationships that may exist in spatial databases). This paper details the manner in which spatial similarity is assessed, for the purpose of re-using previous spatial cases. The authors consider similarity assessment a useful concept for retrieving and analysing spatial information as it may help researchers describe and explore a certain phenomena, its immediate environment and its relationships to other phenomena. This paper will address the following questions: What makes phenomena similar? What is the definition of similarity? What principles govern similarity? and How can similarity be measured?<br/> <br/>Generally, phenomena are similar when they share common attributes and circumstances. The degree of similarity depends on the type and number of commonalties they share. Within this research, similarity is examined from a spatial perspective. Spatial similarity is broadly defined by the authors as the spatial matching and ranking according to a specific context and scale. More specifically, similarity is governed by context (function, use, reason, goal, users frame-of mind), scale (coarse or fine level), repository (the application, local domain, site and data specifics), techniques (the available technology for searching, retrieving and recognising data) and measure and ranking systems.<br/> <br/>The degree of match is the score between a source and a target. In spatial matching a source and a target could be a pixel, region or coverage. The principles that govern spatial similarity are not just the attributes but also the relationships between two phenomena. This is one reason why CBR coupled with a GIS is fortuitous. A GIS is used symbiotically to extract spatial variables that can be used by CBR to determine similar spatial relations between phenomena. These spatial relations are used to assess the similarity between two phenomena (for example proximity and neighborhood analysis). Developing the concept of spatial similarity could assist with analysing spatial databases by developing techniques to match similar areas. This would help maximise the information that could be extracted from spatial databases. From an exploratory perspective, spatial similarity serves as an organising principle by which spatial phenomena are classified, relationships identified and generalisations made from previous bona fide experiences or knowledge. This paper will investigate the spatial similarity concept.</p>

<p><a href="papers/dp1998-08.pdf">Download</a> (PDF, 456 KB)</p>

<hr>

<a name="dp1998-09"></a><h3>98/09: Development of a generic system for modelling spatial processes</h3>

<h4>A. Marr and R. Pascoe and G. Benwell and S. Mann</h4>

<p>In this paper is proposed a structure for the development of a generic graphical system for modelling spatial processes (SMSP). This system seeks to integrate the spatial data handling operations of a GIS with specialist numerical modelling functionality, by the description of the processes involved. A conceptual framework is described, the foundation of which are six defined modules (or services) that are considered a minimum requirement for basic system operation. The services are identified following description of the three key components to systems integration, and the examination of the preferred integrating structure. The relationship of the integration components to sample commentary on the future requirements of integration is discussed, and the benefits and deficiencies of an implemented system for modelling spatial processes are noted.</p>

<p><a href="papers/dp1998-09.pdf">Download</a> (PDF, 644 KB)</p>

<hr>

<a name="dp1998-10"></a><h3>98/10: Neuro-fuzzy methods for environmental modelling</h3>

<h4>M. K. Purvis and N. Kasabov and G. Benwell and Q. Zhou and F. Zhang</h4>

<p>This paper describes combined approaches of data preparation, neural network analysis, and fuzzy inferencing techniques (which we collectively call neuro-fuzzy engineering) to the problem of environmental modelling. The overall neuro-fuzzy architecture is presented, and specific issues associated with environmental modelling are discussed. A case study that shows how these techniques can be combined is presented for illustration. We also describe our current software implementation that incorporates neuro-fuzzy analytical tools into commercially available geographical information system software.</p>

<p><a href="papers/dp1998-10.pdf">Download</a> (PDF, 384 KB)</p>

<div class="sectionTitle">Information Science Discussion Papers Series: 1998 Abstracts</div>

<hr>

<a name="dp9801"></a><h3>98/01: User defined spatial business rules: Storage, management and implementation&#8212;A pipe network case study</h3>
<h4>S. Cockcroft</h4>

<p>The application of business rules as a means of ensuring data quality is an accepted approach in information systems development. Rules, defined by the user, are stored and manipulated by a repository or data dictionary. The repository stores the system design, including rules which result from constraints in the user&#8217;s environment, and enforces these rules at runtime. The work presented here represents the application of this approach to spatial information system design using an integrated spatial software engineering tool (ISSET) with a repository at its core.</p>

<p><strong>Keywords: </strong>spatial information systems development,
integrity constraints,
business rules,
topological relationships</p>

<hr>

<a name="dp9802"></a><h3>98/02: Electronic Security</h3>
<h4>H.B. Wolfe</h4>

<p>At this time cryptography is really the only effective method that can be used to protect Internet transactions and communications from unauthorized interception. Unauthorized means <STRONG><U>anyone</U></STRONG> who you have not expressly given permission to read your private communications. Cryptography is the art or science of hidden writing. Plain text (your message in readable form) is modified using an algorithm (like a mathematical equation) that requires at least one special variable (your special private key that no one else knows) to create ciphered text (your message in unreadable form). At the destination the person who the message is meant for must have the &#8220;special key&#8221; in order to be able to unlock the ciphered message.</p>

<p>All encryption is not created equal nor does it necessarily provide equivalent security. It would be wrong to intimate that merely using &#8220;encryption&#8221; to protect your communication is enough. There are other factors at work here as well and they have to do with the politics of privacy. I have often heard it said in New Zealand that &#8220;if you have nothing to hide then it shouldn&#8217;t matter who reads your communications&#8221;. Of course, that opinion is na&iuml;ve and does not represent reality in any meaningful way.</p>

<hr>

<a name="dp9803"></a><h3>98/03: Looking for a new AI paradigm: Evolving connectionist and fuzzy connectionist systems&#8212;Theory and applications for adaptive, on-line intelligent systems</h3>
<h4>N. Kasabov</h4>

<p>The paper introduces one paradigm of neuro-fuzzy techniques and an approach to building on-line, adaptive intelligent systems. This approach is called evolving connectionist systems (ECOS). ECOS evolve through incremental, on-line learning, both supervised and unsupervised. They can accommodate new input data, including new features, new classes, etc. The ECOS framework is presented and illustrated on a particular type of evolving neural networks&#8212;evolving fuzzy neural networks. ECOS are three to six orders of magnitude faster than the multilayer perceptrons, or the fuzzy neural networks, trained with the backpropagation algorithm, or with a genetic programming technique. ECOS belong to the new generation of adaptive intelligent systems. This is illustrated on several real world problems for adaptive, on-line classification, prediction, decision making and control: phoneme-based speech recognition; moving person identification; wastewater flow time-series prediction and control; intelligent agents; financial time series prediction and control. The principles of recurrent ECOS and reinforcement learning are outlined.</p>

<p><strong>Keywords: </strong>evolving neuro-fuzzy systems,
fuzzy neural networks,
on-line adaptive control,
on-line decision making,
intelligent agents</p>

<hr>

<a name="dp9804"></a><h3>98/04: Connectionist methods for classification of fruit populations based on visible-near infrared spectrophotometry data</h3>
<h4>J. Kim, N. Kasabov, A. Mowat and P. Poole</h4>

<hr>

<a name="dp9805"></a><h3>98/05: A fuzzy neural network model for the estimation of the feeding rate to an anaerobic waste water treatment process</h3>
<h4>J. Kim, R. Kozma, N. Kasabov, B. Gols, M. Geerink and T. Cohen</h4>

<p><strong>Keywords: </strong>fuzzy neural networks,
hybrid learning,
knowledge extraction and insertion,
estimation,
biological process and control,
bacterial system,
total organic carbon (TOC)</p>

<hr>

<a name="dp9806"></a><h3>98/06: Induction of labour for post term pregnancy: An observational study</h3>
<h4>E. Parry, D. Parry and N. Pattison</h4>

<p>The aim of the study was to compare the 2 management protocols for postterm pregnancy; elective induction of labour at 42 weeks&#8217; gestation and continuing the pregnancy with fetal monitoring while awaiting spontaneous labour. A retrospective observational study compared a cohort of 360 pregnancies where labour was induced with 486 controls. All pregnancies were postterm (&gt;294 days) by an early ultrasound scan. Induction of labour was achieved with either prostaglandin vaginal pessaries or gel or forewater rupture and Syntocinon infusion. The control group consisted of women with postterm pregnancies who were not induced routinely and who usually had twice weekly fetal assessment with cardiotocography and/or ultrasound. Women who had their labour induced differed from those who awaited spontaneous labour. Nulliparas (OR 1.54; 95% CI 1.24-1.83) and married women (OR 1.76; 95% CI 1.45-2.06) were more likely to have their labour induced. There was no association between the type of caregiver and induction of labour. Induction of labour was associated with a reduction in the incidence of normal vaginal delivery (OR 0.63, 95% CI 0.43-0.92) and an increased incidence of operative vaginal delivery (OR 1.46; 95% CI 1.34-2.01). There was no difference in the overall rate of Caesarean section. There was no difference in fetal or neonatal outcomes. Parity had a major influence on delivery outcomes from a policy of induction of labour. Nulliparas in the induced group had worse outcomes with only 43% achieving a normal vaginal delivery (OR 0.78, 95% CI 0.65-0.95). In contrast for multiparas, the induced group had better outcomes with less Caesarean sections (OR 0.88, 95% CI 0.81-0.96). This retrospective observational study of current clinical practice shows that induction of labour for postterm pregnancy appears to be favoured by nulliparous married women. <STRONG>It suggests that induction of labour may improve delivery outcomes for multigravas but has an adverse effect for nulliparas.</STRONG></p>

<hr>

<a name="dp9807"></a><h3>98/07: Automating information processing tasks: An agent-based architecture</h3>
<h4>S. Cranefield, B. McKinlay, E. Moreale and M.K. Purvis</h4>

<p><a href="papers/dp9807sc.pdf.gz">Download</a> (gzipped PDF, 128KB)</p>

<hr>

<a name="dp9808"></a><h3>98/08: Spatial isomorphism</h3>
<h4>A. Holt, S. MacDonell and G. Benwell</h4>

<p>This research continues with current innovative geocomputational research trends that aim to provide enhanced spatial analysis tools. The coupling of case-based reasoning (CBR) with GIS provides the focus of this paper. This coupling allows the retrieval, reuse, revision and retention of previous similar spatial cases. CBR is therefore used to develop more complex spatial data modelling methods (by using the CBR modules for improved spatial data manipulation) and provide enhanced exploratory geographical analysis tools (to find and assess certain patterns and relationships that may exist in spatial databases). This paper details the manner in which spatial similarity is assessed, for the purpose of re-using previous spatial cases. The authors consider similarity assessment a useful concept for retrieving and analysing spatial information as it may help researchers describe and explore a certain phenomena, its immediate environment and its relationships to other phenomena. This paper will address the following questions: What makes phenomena similar? What is the definition of similarity? What principles govern similarity? and How can similarity be measured?</p>
 
<p>Generally, phenomena are similar when they share common attributes and circumstances. The degree of similarity depends on the type and number of commonalties they share. Within this research, similarity is examined from a spatial perspective. Spatial similarity is broadly defined by the authors <EM>as the spatial matching and ranking according to a specific context and scale</EM>. More specifically, similarity is governed by context (function, use, reason, goal, users frame-of mind), scale (coarse or fine level), repository (the application, local domain, site and data specifics), techniques (the available technology for searching, retrieving and recognising data) and measure and ranking systems.</p>
 
<p>The degree of match is the score between a source and a target. In spatial matching a source and a target could be a pixel, region or coverage. The principles that govern spatial similarity are not just the attributes but also the relationships between two phenomena. This is one reason why CBR coupled with a GIS is fortuitous. A GIS is used symbiotically to extract spatial variables that can be used by CBR to determine similar spatial relations between phenomena. These spatial relations are used to assess the similarity between two phenomena (for example proximity and neighborhood analysis). Developing the concept of spatial similarity could assist with analysing spatial databases by developing techniques to match similar areas. This would help maximise the information that could be extracted from spatial databases. From an exploratory perspective, spatial similarity serves as an organising principle by which spatial phenomena are classified, relationships identified and generalisations made from previous bona fide experiences or knowledge. This paper will investigate the spatial similarity concept.</p>

<p><a href="papers/dp9808ah.pdf.gz">Download</a> (gzipped PDF, 358KB)</p>

<hr>

<a name="dp9809"></a><h3>98/09: Development of a generic system for modelling spatial processes</h3>
<h4>A. Marr, R. Pascoe, G. Benwell and S. Mann</h4>

<p>In this paper is proposed a structure for the development of a generic graphical system for modelling spatial processes (SMSP). This system seeks to integrate the spatial data handling operations of a GIS with specialist numerical modelling functionality, by the description of the processes involved. A conceptual framework is described, the foundation of which are six defined modules (or <EM>services</EM>) that are considered a minimum requirement for basic system operation. The services are identified following description of the three key components to systems integration, and the examination of the preferred integrating structure. The relationship of the integration components to sample commentary on the future requirements of integration is discussed, and the benefits and deficiencies of an implemented system for modelling spatial processes are noted.</p>

<p><a href="papers/dp9809am.pdf.gz">Download</a> (gzipped PDF, 511KB)</p>

<hr>

<a name="dp9810"></a><h3>98/10: Neuro-fuzzy methods for environmental modelling</h3>
<h4>M.K. Purvis, N. Kasabov, G. Benwell, Q. Zhou and F. Zhang</h4>

<p><a href="papers/dp9810mp.pdf.gz">Download</a> (gzipped PDF, 346KB)</p>

Ignore Space Show notes View Website/dp1999-abstracts-contents.htm
<div class="sectionTitle">Information Science Discussion Papers Series: 1999 Abstracts</div> <hr> <a name="dp1999-01"></a><h3>99/01: UML as an ontology modelling language</h3> <h4>S. Cranefield and M. K. Purvis</h4> <p>Current tools and techniques for ontology development are based on the traditions of AI knowledge representation research. This research has led to popular formalisms such as KIF and KL-ONE style languages. However, these representations are little known outside AI research laboratories. In contrast, commercial interest has resulted in ideas from the object-oriented programming community maturing into industry standards and powerful tools for object-oriented analysis, design and implementation. These standards and tools have a wide and rapidly growing user community. This paper examines the potential for object-oriented standards to be used for ontology modelling, and in particular presents an ontology representation language based on a subset of the Unified Modeling Language together with its associated Object Constraint Language.</p> <p><a href="papers/dp1999-01.pdf">Download</a> (PDF, 204 KB)</p> <hr> <a name="dp1999-02"></a><h3>99/02: Evolving connectionist systems for on-line, knowledge-based learning: Principles and applications</h3> <h4>N. Kasabov</h4> <p>The paper introduces evolving connectionist systems (ECOS) as an effective approach to building on-line, adaptive intelligent systems. ECOS evolve through incremental, hybrid (supervised/unsupervised), on-line learning. They can accommodate new input data, including new features, new classes, etc. through local element tuning. New connections and new neurons are created during the operation of the system. The ECOS framework is presented and illustrated on a particular type of evolving neural networks—evolving fuzzy neural networks (EFuNNs). EFuNNs can learn spatial-temporal sequences in an adaptive way, through one pass learning. Rules can be inserted and extracted at any time of the system operation. The characteristics of ECOS and EFuNNs are illustrated on several case studies that include: adaptive pattern classification; adaptive, phoneme-based spoken language recognition; adaptive dynamic time-series prediction; intelligent agents.</p> <p><strong>Keywords:</strong> evolving connectionist systems, evolving fuzzy neural networks, on-line learning, spatial-temporal adaptation, adaptive speech recognition</p> <p><a href="papers/dp1999-02.pdf">Download</a> (PDF, 944 KB)</p> <hr> <a name="dp1999-03"></a><h3>99/03: Spatial-temporal adaptation in evolving fuzzy neural networks for on-line adaptive phoneme recognition</h3> <h4>N. Kasabov and M. Watts</h4> <p>The paper is a study on a new class of spatial-temporal evolving fuzzy neural network systems (EFuNNs) for on-line adaptive learning, and their applications for adaptive phoneme recognition. The systems evolve through incremental, hybrid (supervised / unsupervised) learning. They accommodate new input data, including new features, new classes, etc. through local element tuning. Both feature-based similarities and temporal dependencies, that are present in the input data, are learned and stored in the connections, and adjusted over time. This is an important requirement for the task of adaptive, speaker independent spoken language recognition, where new pronunciations and new accents need to be learned in an on-line, adaptive mode. Experiments with EFuNNs, and also with multi-layer perceptrons, and fuzzy neural networks (FuNNs), conducted on the whole set of New Zealand English phonemes, show the superiority and the potential of EFuNNs when used for the task. Spatial allocation of nodes and their aggregation in EFuNNs allow for similarity preserving and similarity observation within one phoneme data and across phonemes, while subtle temporal variations within one phoneme data can be learned and adjusted through temporal feedback connections. The experimental results support the claim that spatial-temporal organisation in EFuNNs can lead to a significant improvement in the recognition rate especially for the diphthong and the vowel phonemes in English, which in many cases are problematic for a system to learn and adjust in an adaptive way.</p> <p><a href="papers/dp1999-03.pdf">Download</a> (PDF, 560 KB)</p> <hr> <a name="dp1999-04"></a><h3>99/04: Dynamic evolving fuzzy neural networks with ‘m-out-of-n’ activation nodes for on-line adaptive systems</h3> <h4>N. Kasabov and Q. Song</h4> <p>The paper introduces a new type of evolving fuzzy neural networks (EFuNNs), denoted as mEFuNNs, for on-line learning and their applications for dynamic time series analysis and prediction. mEFuNNs evolve through incremental, hybrid (supervised/unsupervised), on-line learning, like the EFuNNs. They can accommodate new input data, including new features, new classes, etc. through local element tuning. New connections and new neurons are created during the operation of the system. At each time moment the output vector of a mEFuNN is calculated based on the m-most activated rule nodes. Two approaches are proposed: (1) using weighted fuzzy rules of Zadeh-Mamdani type; (2) using Takagi-Sugeno fuzzy rules that utilise dynamically changing and adapting values for the inference parameters. It is proved that the mEFuNNs can effectively learn complex temporal sequences in an adaptive way and outperform EFuNNs, ANFIS and other neural network and hybrid models. Rules can be inserted, extracted and adjusted continuously during the operation of the system. The characteristics of the mEFuNNs are illustrated on two bench-mark dynamic time series data, as well as on two real case studies for on-line adaptive control and decision making. Aggregation of rule nodes in evolved mEFuNNs can be achieved through fuzzy C-means clustering algorithm which is also illustrated on the bench mark data sets. The regularly trained and aggregated in an on-line, self-organised mode mEFuNNs perform as well, or better, than the mEFuNNs that use fuzzy C-means clustering algorithm for off-line rule node generation on the same data set.</p> <p><strong>Keywords:</strong> dynamic evolving fuzzy neural networks, on-line learning, adaptive control, dynamic time series prediction, fuzzy clustering</p> <p><a href="papers/dp1999-04.pdf">Download</a> (PDF, 2 MB)</p> <hr> <a name="dp1999-05"></a><h3>99/05: Hybrid neuro-fuzzy inference systems and their application for on-line adaptive learning of nonlinear dynamical systems</h3> <h4>J. Kim and N. Kasabov</h4> <p>In this paper, an adaptive neuro-fuzzy system, called HyFIS, is proposed to build and optimise fuzzy models. The proposed model introduces the learning power of neural networks into the fuzzy logic systems and provides linguistic meaning to the connectionist architectures. Heuristic fuzzy logic rules and input-output fuzzy membership functions can be optimally tuned from training examples by a hybrid learning scheme composed of two phases: the phase of rule generation from data, and the phase of rule tuning by using the error backpropagation learning scheme for a neural fuzzy system. In order to illustrate the performance and applicability of the proposed neuro-fuzzy hybrid model, extensive simulation studies of nonlinear complex dynamics are carried out. The proposed method can be applied to on-line incremental adaptive leaning for the purpose of prediction and control of non-linear dynamical systems.</p> <p><strong>Keywords:</strong> neuro-fuzzy systems, neural networks, fuzzy logic, parameter and structure learning, knowledge acquisition, adaptation, time series</p> <hr> <a name="dp1999-06"></a><h3>99/06: A distributed architecture for environmental information systems</h3> <h4>M. K. Purvis and S. Cranefield and M. Nowostawski</h4> <p>The increasing availability and variety of large environmental data sets is opening new opportunities for data mining and useful cross-referencing of disparate environmental data sets distributed over a network. In order to take advantage of these opportunities, environmental information systems will need to operate effectively in a distributed, open environment. In this paper, we describe the New Zealand Distributed Information System (NZDIS) software architecture for environmental information systems. In order to optimise extensibility, openness, and flexible query processing, the architecture is organised into collaborating software agents that communicate by means of a standard declarative agent communication language. The metadata of environmental data sources are stored as part of agent ontologies, which represent information models of the domain of the data repository. The agents and the associated ontological framework are designed as much as possible to take advantage of standard object-oriented technology, such as CORBA, UML, and OQL, in order to enhance the openness and accessibility of the system.</p> <p><a href="papers/dp1999-06.pdf">Download</a> (PDF, 208 Kb)</p> <hr> <a name="dp1999-07"></a><h3>99/07: From hybrid adjustable neuro-fuzzy systems to adaptive connectionist-based systems for phoneme and word recognition</h3> <h4>N. Kasabov and R. Kilgour and S. Sinclair</h4> <p>This paper discusses the problem of adaptation in automatic speech recognition systems (ASRS) and suggests several strategies for adaptation in a modular architecture for speech recognition. The architecture allows for adaptation at different levels of the recognition process, where modules can be adapted individually based on their performance and the performance of the whole system. Two realisations of this architecture are presented along with experimental results from small-scale experiments. The first realisation is a hybrid system for speaker-independent phoneme-based spoken word recognition, consisting of neural networks for recognising English phonemes and fuzzy systems for modelling acoustic and linguistic knowledge. This system is adjustable by additional training of individual neural network modules and tuning the fuzzy systems. The increased accuracy of the recognition through appropriate adjustment is also discussed. The second realisation of the architecture is a connectionist system that uses fuzzy neural networks FuNNs to accommodate both a prior linguistic knowledge and data from a speech corpus. A method for on-line adaptation of FuNNs is also presented.</p> <p><strong>Keywords:</strong> pattern recognition, artificial intelligence, neural networks, speech recognition</p> <hr> <a name="dp1999-08"></a><h3>99/08: Adaptive, evolving, hybrid connectionist systems for image pattern recognition</h3> <h4>N. Kasabov and S. Israel and B. Woodford</h4> <p>The chapter presents a new methodology for building adaptive, incremental learning systems for image pattern classification. The systems are based on dynamically evolving fuzzy neural networks that are neural architectures to realise connectionist learning, fuzzy logic inference, and case-based reasoning. The methodology and the architecture are applied on two sets of real data—one of satellite image data, and the other of fruit image data. The proposed method and architecture encourage fast learning, life-long learning and on-line learning when the system operates in a changing environment of image data.</p> <p><strong>Keywords:</strong> image classification, evolving fuzzy neural networks, case-based reasoning</p> <p><a href="papers/dp1999-08.pdf">Download</a> (PDF, 1.3 MB)</p> <hr> <a name="dp1999-09"></a><h3>99/09: The concepts of hidden Markov model in speech recognition</h3> <h4>W. Abdulla and N. Kasabov</h4> <p>The speech recognition field is one of the most challenging fields that has faced scientists for a long time. The complete solution is still far from reach. The efforts are concentrated with huge funds from the companies to different related and supportive approaches to reach the final goal. Then, apply it to the enormous applications that are still waiting for the successful speech recognisers that are free from the constraints of speakers, vocabularies or environment. This task is not an easy one due to the interdisciplinary nature of the problem and as it requires speech perception to be implied in the recogniser (Speech Understanding Systems) which in turn point strongly to the use of intelligence within the systems.</p> <p>The bare techniques of recognisers (without intelligence) are following wide varieties of approaches with different claims of success by each group of authors who put their faith in their favourite way. However, the sole technique that gains the acceptance of the researchers to be the state of the art is the Hidden Markov Model (HMM) technique. HMM is agreed to be the most promising one. It might be used successfully with other techniques to improve the performance, such as hybridising the HMM with Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) algorithms. This does not mean that the HMM is pure from approximations that are far from reality, such as the successive observations independence, but the results and potential of this algorithm is reliable. The modifications on HMM take the burden of releasing it from these poorly representative approximations hoping for better results.</p> <p>In this report we are going to describe the backbone of the HMM technique with the main outlines for successful implementation. The representation and implementation of HMM varies in one way or another but the main idea is the same as well as the results and computation costs, it is a matter of preferences to choose one. Our preference here is that adopted by Ferguson and Rabiner et al.</p> <p>In this report we will describe the Markov Chain, and then investigate a very popular model in the speech recognition field (the Left-Right HMM Topology). The mathematical formulations needed to be implemented will be fully explained as they are crucial in building the HMM. The prominent factors in the design will also be discussed. Finally we conclude this report by some experimental results to see the practical outcomes of the implemented model.</p> <p><a href="papers/dp1999-09.pdf">Download</a> (PDF, 556 KB)</p> <hr> <a name="dp1999-10"></a><h3>99/10: Finding medical information on the Internet: Who should do it and what should they know</h3> <h4>D. Parry</h4> <p>More and more medical information is appearing on the Internet, but it is not easy to get at the nuggets amongst all the spoil. Bruce McKenzie’s editorial in the December 1997 edition of SIM Quarterly dealt very well with the problems of quality, but I would suggest that the problem of accessibility is as much of a challenge. As ever-greater quantities of high quality medical information are published electronically, the need to be able to find it becomes imperative. There are a number of tools to find what you want on the Internet—search engines, agents, indexing and classification schemes and hyperlinks, but their use requires care, skill and experience.</p> <p><a href="papers/dp1999-10.pdf">Download</a> (PDF, 196 KB)</p> <hr> <a name="dp1999-11"></a><h3>99/11: Software metrics data analysis—Exploring the relative performance of some commonly used modeling techniques</h3> <h4>A. Gray and S. MacDonell</h4> <p>Whilst some software measurement research has been unquestionably successful, other research has struggled to enable expected advances in project and process management. Contributing to this lack of advancement has been the incidence of inappropriate or non-optimal application of various model-building procedures. This obviously raises questions over the validity and reliability of any results obtained as well as the conclusions that may have been drawn regarding the appropriateness of the techniques in question. In this paper we investigate the influence of various data set characteristics and the purpose of analysis on the effectiveness of four model-building techniques—three statistical methods and one neural network method. In order to illustrate the impact of data set characteristics, three separate data sets, drawn from the literature, are used in this analysis. In terms of predictive accuracy, it is shown that no one modeling method is best in every case. Some consideration of the characteristics of data sets should therefore occur before analysis begins, so that the most appropriate modeling method is then used. Moreover, issues other than predictive accuracy may have a significant influence on the selection of model-building methods. These issues are also addressed here and a series of guidelines for selecting among and implementing these and other modeling techniques is discussed.</p> <p><strong>Keywords:</strong> software metrics, analysis, statistical methods, connectionist methods</p> <p><a href="papers/dp1999-11.pdf">Download</a> (PDF, 292 KB)</p> <hr> <a name="dp1999-12"></a><h3>99/12: Software forensics for discriminating between program authors using case-based reasoning, feed-forward neural networks and multiple discriminant analysis</h3> <h4>S. MacDonell and A. Gray and G. MacLennan and P. Sallis</h4> <p>Software forensics is a research field that, by treating pieces of program source code as linguistically and stylistically analyzable entities, attempts to investigate aspects of computer program authorship. This can be performed with the goal of identification, discrimination, or characterization of authors. In this paper we extract a set of 26 standard authorship metrics from 351 programs by 7 different authors. The use of feed-forward neural networks, multiple discriminant analysis, and case-based reasoning is then investigated in terms of classification accuracy for the authors on both training and testing samples. The first two techniques produce remarkably similar results, with the best results coming from the case-based reasoning models. All techniques have high prediction accuracy rates, supporting the feasibility of the task of discriminating program authors based on source-code measurements.</p> <p><a href="papers/dp1999-12.pdf">Download</a> (PDF, 148 KB)</p> <hr> <a name="dp1999-13"></a><h3>99/13: FULSOME: Fuzzy logic for software metric practitioners and researchers</h3> <h4>S. MacDonell and A. Gray and J. Calvert</h4> <p>There has been increasing interest in recent times for using fuzzy logic techniques to represent software metric models, especially those predicting development effort. The use of fuzzy logic for this application area offers several advantages when compared to other commonly used techniques. These include the use of a single model with different levels of precision for inputs and outputs used throughout the development life cycle, the possibility of model development with little or no data, and its effectiveness when used as a communication tool. The use of fuzzy logic in any applied field however requires that suitable tools are available for both practitioners and researchers—satisfying both interface and functionality related requirements. After outlining some of the specific needs of the software metrics community, including results from a survey of software developers on this topic, the paper describes the use of a set of tools called FULSOME (Fuzzy Logic for Software Metrics). The development of a simple fuzzy logic system by a software metrician and subsequent tuning are then discussed using a real-world set of software metric data. The automatically generated fuzzy model performs acceptably when compared to regression-based models.</p> <p><a href="papers/dp1999-13.pdf">Download</a> (PDF, 236 KB)</p> <hr> <a name="dp1999-14"></a><h3>99/14: Assessing prediction systems</h3> <h4>B. Kitchenham and S. MacDonell and L. Pickard and M. Shepperd</h4> <p>For some years software engineers have been attempting to develop useful prediction systems to estimate such attributes as the effort to develop a piece of software and the likely number of defects. Typically, prediction systems are proposed and then subjected to empirical evaluation. Claims are then made with regard to the quality of the prediction systems. A wide variety of prediction quality indicators have been suggested in the literature. Unfortunately, we believe that a somewhat confusing state of affairs prevails and that this impedes research progress. This paper aims to provide the research community with a better understanding of the meaning of, and relationship between, these indicators. We critically review twelve different approaches by considering them as descriptors of the residual variable. We demonstrate that the two most popular indicators MMRE and pred(25) are in fact indicators of the spread and shape respectively of prediction accuracy where prediction accuracy is the ratio of estimate to actual (or actual to estimate). Next we highlight the impact of the choice of indicator by comparing three prediction systems derived using four different simulated datasets. We demonstrate that the results of such a comparison depend upon the choice of indicator, the analysis technique, and the nature of the dataset used to derive the predictive model. We conclude that prediction systems cannot be characterised by a single summary statistic. We suggest that we need indicators of the central tendency and spread of accuracy as well as indicators of shape and bias. For this reason, boxplots of relative error or residuals are useful alternatives to simple summary metrics.</p> <p><strong>Keywords:</strong> prediction systems, estimation, empirical analysis, metrics, goodness-of-fit statistics</p> <p><a href="papers/dp1999-14.pdf">Download</a> (PDF, 304 KB)</p> <hr> <a name="dp1999-15"></a><h3>99/15: Industry practices in project management for multimedia information systems</h3> <h4>S. MacDonell and T. Fletcher</h4> <p>This paper describes ongoing research directed at formulating a set of appropriate measures for assessing and ultimately predicting effort requirements for multimedia systems development. Whilst significant advances have been made in the determination of measures for both transaction-based and process-intensive systems, very little work has been undertaken in relation to measures for multimedia systems. A small preliminary empirical study is reviewed as a precursor to a more exploratory investigation of the factors that are considered by industry to be influential in determining development effort. This work incorporates the development and use of a goal-based framework to assist the measure selection process from a literature basis, followed by an industry questionnaire. The results provide a number of preliminary but nevertheless useful insights into contemporary project management practices with respect to multimedia systems.</p> <p><a href="papers/dp1999-15.pdf">Download</a> (PDF, 228 KB)</p> <hr> <a name="dp1999-16"></a><h3>99/16: Factors systematically associated with errors in subjective estimates of software development effort: The stability of expert judgment</h3> <h4>A. Gray and S. MacDonell and M. Shepperd</h4> <p>Software metric-based estimation of project development effort is most often performed by expert judgment rather than by using an empirically derived model (although such may be used by the expert to assist their decision). One question that can be asked about these estimates is how stable are they with respect to characteristics of the development process and product? This stability can be assessed in relation to the degree to which the project has advanced over time, the type of module for which the estimate is being made, and the characteristics of that module. In this paper we examine a set of expert-derived estimates for the effort required to develop a collection of modules from a large health-care system. Statistical tests are used to identify relationships between the type (screen or report) and characteristics of modules and the likelihood of the associated development effort being under-estimated, approximately correct, or over-estimated. Distinct relationships are found that suggest that the estimation process being examined was not unbiased to such characteristics.</p> <p><a href="papers/dp1999-16.pdf">Download</a> (PDF, 236 KB)</p> <hr> <a name="dp1999-17"></a><h3>99/17: The NZDIS project: An agent-based distributed information systems architecture</h3> <h4>M. K. Purvis and S. Cranefield and G. Bush and D. Carter and B. McKinlay and M. Nowostawski and R. Ward</h4> <p>This paper describes an architecture for building distributed information systems from existing information resources, based on distributed object and software agent technologies. This architecture is being developed as part of the New Zealand Distributed Information Systems (NZDIS) project.</p> <p>An agent-based architecture is used: information sources are encapsulated as information agents that accept messages in an agent communication language (the FIPA ACL). A user agent assists users to browse ontologies appropriate to their domain of interest and to construct queries based on terms from one or more ontologies. One or more query processing agents are then responsible for discovering (from a resource broker agent) which data source agents are relevant to the query, decomposing the query into subqueries suitable for those agents (including the translation of the query into the specific ontologies implemented by those agents), executing the subqueries and translating and combining the subquery results into the desired result set.</p> <p>Novel features of this system include the use of standards from the object-oriented community such as the Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA) (as a communications infrastructure), the Unified Modeling Language (used as an ontology representation language), the Object Data Management Group’s Object Query Language (used for queries) and the Object Management Group’s Meta Object Facility (used as the basis for an ontology repository agent). Query results need not be returned within an ACL message, but may instead be represented by a CORBA object reference which may be used to obtain the result set.</p> <p><a href="papers/dp1999-17.pdf">Download</a> (PDF, 212 KB)</p> <hr> <a name="dp1999-18"></a><h3>99/18: HTN planning for information processing tasks</h3> <h4>S. Cranefield</h4> <p>This paper discusses the problem of integrated planning and execution for tasks that involve the consumption, production and alteration of relational information. Unlike information retrieval problems, the information processing domain requires explicit modelling of the changing information state of the domain and how the validity of resources changes as actions are performed. A solution to this problem is presented in the form of a specialised hierarchical task network planning model. A distinction is made between the information processing effects of an action (modelled in terms of constraints relating the domain information before and after the action) and the actions’ preconditions and effects which are expressed in terms of required, produced and invalidated resources. The information flow between tasks is explicitly represented in methods and plans, including any required information-combining operations such as selection and union.</p> <p>The paper presents the semantics of this model and discusses implementation issues arising from the extension of an existing HTN planner (SHOP) to support this model of planning.</p> <p><strong>Keywords:</strong> HTN planning, information processing, integrated planning and execution</p> <p><a href="papers/dp1999-18.pdf">Download</a> (PDF, 188 KB)</p> <hr> <a name="dp1999-19"></a><h3>99/19: Automated scoring of practical tests in an introductory course in information technology</h3> <h4>G. Kennedy</h4> <p>In an introductory course in information technology at the University of Otago the acquisition of practical skills is considered to be a prime objective. An effective way of assessing the achievement of this objective is by means of a ‘practical test’, in which students are required to accomplish simple tasks in a controlled environment. The assessment of such work demands a high level of expertise, is very labour intensive and can suffer from marker inconsistency, particularly with large candidatures.</p> <p>This paper describes the results of a trial in which the efforts of one thousand students in a practical test of word processing were scored by means of a program written in MediaTalk. Details of the procedure are given, including sampling strategies for the purpose of validation and examples of problems that were encountered.</p> <p>It was concluded that the approach was useful, and once properly validated gave rise to considerable savings in the time and effort.</p> <p><strong>Keywords:</strong> computer-aided learning, automated scoring, computer education, test validation</p> <p><a href="papers/dp1999-19.pdf">Download</a> (PDF, 216 KB)</p> <hr> <a name="dp1999-20"></a><h3>99/20: Fuzzy logic for software metric models throughout the development life-cycle</h3> <h4>A. Gray and S. MacDonell</h4> <p>One problem faced by managers who are using project management models is the elicitation of numerical inputs. Obtaining these with any degree of confidence early in a project is not always feasible. Related to this difficulty is the risk of precisely specified outputs from models leading to overcommitment. These problems can be seen as the collective failure of software measurements to represent the inherent uncertainties in managers’ knowledge of the development products, resources, and processes. It is proposed that fuzzy logic techniques can help to overcome some of these difficulties by representing the imprecision in inputs and outputs, as well as providing a more expert-knowledge based approach to model building. The use of fuzzy logic for project management however should not be the same throughout the development life cycle. Different levels of available information and desired precision suggest that it can be used differently depending on the current phase, although a single model can be used for consistency.</p> <p><a href="papers/dp1999-20.pdf">Download</a> (PDF, 148 KB)</p> <hr> <a name="dp1999-21"></a><h3>99/21: Wayfinding/navigation within a QTVR virtual environment: Preliminary results</h3> <h4>B. Norris and D. Rashid and W. Wong</h4> <p>This paper reports on an investigation into wayfinding principles, and their effectiveness within a virtual environment. To investigate these principles, a virtual environment of an actual museum was created using QuickTime Virtual Reality. Wayfinding principles used in the real world were identified and used to design the interaction of the virtual environment. The initial findings suggests that real-world navigation principles, such as the use of map and landmark principles, can significantly help navigation within this virtual environment. However, navigation difficulties were discovered through an Activity Theory-based Cognitive Task Analysis.</p> <p><strong>Keywords:</strong> wayfinding, navigation, QTVR, virtual environments, activity theory</p> <hr> <a name="dp1999-22"></a><h3>99/22: Predictive modelling of plankton dynamics in freshwater lakes using genetic programming</h3> <h4>P. Whigham and F. Recknagel</h4> <p>Building predictive time series models for freshwater systems is important both for understanding the dynamics of these natural systems and in the development of decision support and management software. This work describes the application of a machine learning technique, namely genetic programming (GP), to the prediction of chlorophyll-a. The system endeavoured to evolve several mathematical time series equations, based on limnological and climate variables, which could predict the dynamics of chlorophyll-a on unseen data. The predictive accuracy of the genetic programming approach was compared with an artificial neural network and a deterministic algal growth model. The GP system evolved some solutions which were improvements over the neural network and showed that the transparent nature of the solutions may allow inferences about underlying processes to be made. This work demonstrates that non-linear processes in natural systems may be successfully modelled through the use of machine learning techniques. Further, it shows that genetic programming may be used as a tool for exploring the driving processes underlying freshwater system dynamics.</p> <p><a href="papers/dp1999-22.pdf">Download</a> (PDF, 264 KB)</p> <hr> <a name="dp1999-23"></a><h3>99/23: Modifications to Smith’s method for deriving normalised relations from a functional dependency diagram</h3> <h4>N. Stanger</h4> <p>Smith’s method (Smith, 1985) is a formal technique for deriving a set of normalised relations from a functional dependency diagram (FDD). Smith’s original rules for deriving these relations are incomplete, as they do not fully address the issue of determining the foreign key links between relations. In addition, one of the rules for deriving foreign keys can produce incorrect results, while the other rule is difficult to automate. In this paper are described solutions these issues.</p> <p><strong>Keywords:</strong> normalisation functional dependencies relational model data model translation</p> <p><a href="papers/dp1999-23.pdf">Download</a> (PDF, 184 KB)</p> <hr> <a name="dp1999-24"></a><h3>99/24: The development of an electronic distance learning course in health informatics</h3> <h4>D. Parry and S. Cockcroft and A. Breton and D. Abernethy and J. Gillies</h4> <p>Since 1997 the authors have been involved in the development of a distance learning course in health informatics. The course is delivered via CD-ROM and the Internet. During this process we have learned valuable lessons about computer-assisted collaboration and cooperative work. In particular we have developed methods of using the software tools available for communication and education. We believe that electronic distance learning offers a realistic means of providing education in health informatics and other fields to students whom for reasons of geography or work commitments would not be able to participate in a conventional course.</p> <p><a href="papers/dp1999-24.pdf">Download</a> (PDF, 496 KB)</p> <hr> <a name="dp1999-25"></a><h3>99/25: Infiltrating IT into primary care: A case study</h3> <h4>S. Cockcroft and D. Parry and A. Breton and D. Abernethy and J. Gillies</h4> <p>Web based approaches to tracking students on placement are receiving much interest in the field of medical education The work presented here describes a web-based solution to the problem of managing data collection from student encounters with patients whilst on placement. The solution has been developed by postgraduate students under the direction of staff of the health informatics diploma. Specifically, the system allows undergraduate students on placement or in the main hospital to access a web-based front end to a database designed to store the data that they are required to gather. The system also has the important effect of providing a rationale for the provision of electronic communication to the undergraduate students within the context of healthcare delivery. We believe that an additional effect will be to expose practicing healthcare providers to electronic information systems, along with the undergraduates who are trained to use them, and increase the skill base of the practitioners.</p> <p><a href="papers/dp1999-25.pdf">Download</a> (PDF, 92 KB)</p> <hr> <a name="dp1999-26"></a><h3>99/26: Using rough sets to study expert behaviour in induction of labour</h3> <h4>D. Parry and W. K. Yeap and N. Pattison</h4> <p>The rate of induction of labour (IOL) is increasing, despite no obvious increase in the incidence of the major indications. However the rate varies widely between different centres and practitioners and this does not seem to be due to variations in patient populations. The IOL decision-making process of six clinicians was recorded and examined using hypothetical scenarios presented on a computer. Several rules were identified from a rough sets analysis of the data. These rules were compared to the actual practise of these clinicians in 1994 Initial tests of these rules show that they may form a suitable set for developing an expert system for the induction of labour.</p> <p><strong>Keywords:</strong> rough sets, obstetrics, knowledge acquisition</p> <p><a href="papers/dp1999-26.pdf">Download</a> (PDF, 108 KB)</p> <hr> <a name="dp1999-27"></a><h3>99/27: Using the Internet to teach health informatics</h3> <h4>D. Parry and A. Breton and D. Abernethy and S. Cockcroft and J. Gillies</h4> <p>Since July 1998 we have been teaching an Internet-based distance learning course in health informatics (http://basil.otago.ac.nz:800). The development of this course and the experiences we have had running it are described in this paper. The course was delivered using paper materials, a face-to-face workshop, a CD-ROM and Internet communication tools. We currently have about 30 students around New Zealand, a mixture of physicians, nurses and other health staff. Some teaching methods have worked, some haven’t, but in the process we have learned a number of valuable lessons.</p> <p><strong>Keywords:</strong> distance learning, healthcare, Internet, CD-ROM</p> <p><a href="papers/dp1999-27.pdf">Download</a> (PDF, 80 KB)</p> <div class="sectionTitle">Information Science Discussion Papers Series: 1999 Abstracts</div> <hr> <a name="dp9901"></a><h3>99/01: UML as an ontology modelling language</h3> <h4>S. Cranefield and M.K. Purvis</h4> <p>Current tools and techniques for ontology development are based on the traditions of AI knowledge representation research. This research has led to popular formalisms such as KIF and KL-ONE style languages. However, these representations are little known outside AI research laboratories. In contrast, commercial interest has resulted in ideas from the object-oriented programming community maturing into industry standards and powerful tools for object-oriented analysis, design and implementation. These standards and tools have a wide and rapidly growing user community. This paper examines the potential for object-oriented standards to be used for ontology modelling, and in particular presents an ontology representation language based on a subset of the Unified Modeling Language together with its associated Object Constraint Language.</p> <p><a href="papers/dp9901sc.pdf.gz">Download</a> (gzipped PDF, 156KB)</p> <hr> <a name="dp9902"></a><h3>99/02: Evolving connectionist systems for on-line, knowledge-based learning: Principles and applications</h3> <h4>N. Kasabov</h4> <p>The paper introduces evolving connectionist systems (ECOS) as an effective approach to building on-line, adaptive intelligent systems. ECOS evolve through incremental, hybrid (supervised/unsupervised), on-line learning. They can accommodate new input data, including new features, new classes, etc. through local element tuning. New connections and new neurons are created during the operation of the system. The ECOS framework is presented and illustrated on a particular type of evolving neural networks—evolving fuzzy neural networks (EFuNNs). EFuNNs can learn spatial-temporal sequences in an adaptive way, through one pass learning. Rules can be inserted and extracted at any time of the system operation. The characteristics of ECOS and EFuNNs are illustrated on several case studies that include: adaptive pattern classification; adaptive, phoneme-based spoken language recognition; adaptive dynamic time-series prediction; intelligent agents.</p> <p><strong>Keywords: </strong>evolving connectionist systems, evolving fuzzy neural networks, on-line learning, spatial-temporal adaptation, adaptive speech recognition</p> <p><a href="papers/dp9902nk.pdf.gz">Download</a> (gzipped PDF, 800KB)</p> <hr> <a name="dp9903"></a><h3>99/03: Spatial-temporal adaptation in evolving fuzzy neural networks for on-line adaptive phoneme recognition</h3> <h4>N. Kasabov and M. Watts</h4> <p>The paper is a study on a new class of spatial-temporal evolving fuzzy neural network systems (EFuNNs) for on-line adaptive learning, and their applications for adaptive phoneme recognition. The systems evolve through incremental, hybrid (supervised / unsupervised) learning. They accommodate new input data, including new features, new classes, etc. through local element tuning. Both feature-based similarities and temporal dependencies, that are present in the input data, are learned and stored in the connections, and adjusted over time. This is an important requirement for the task of adaptive, speaker independent spoken language recognition, where new pronunciations and new accents need to be learned in an on-line, adaptive mode. Experiments with EFuNNs, and also with multi-layer perceptrons, and fuzzy neural networks (FuNNs), conducted on the whole set of New Zealand English phonemes, show the superiority and the potential of EFuNNs when used for the task. Spatial allocation of nodes and their aggregation in EFuNNs allow for similarity preserving and similarity observation within one phoneme data and across phonemes, while subtle temporal variations within one phoneme data can be learned and adjusted through temporal feedback connections. The experimental results support the claim that spatial-temporal organisation in EFuNNs can lead to a significant improvement in the recognition rate especially for the diphthong and the vowel phonemes in English, which in many cases are problematic for a system to learn and adjust in an adaptive way.</p> <p><a href="papers/dp9903nk.pdf.gz">Download</a> (gzipped PDF, 438KB)</p> <hr> <a name="dp9904"></a><h3>99/04: Dynamic evolving fuzzy neural networks with ‘m-out-of-n’ activation nodes for on-line adaptive systems</h3> <h4>N. Kasabov and Q. Song</h4> <p>The paper introduces a new type of evolving fuzzy neural networks (EFuNNs), denoted as mEFuNNs, for on-line learning and their applications for dynamic time series analysis and prediction. mEFuNNs evolve through incremental, hybrid (supervised/unsupervised), on-line learning, like the EFuNNs. They can accommodate new input data, including new features, new classes, etc. through local element tuning. New connections and new neurons are created during the operation of the system. At each time moment the output vector of a mEFuNN is calculated based on the m-most activated rule nodes. Two approaches are proposed: (1) using weighted fuzzy rules of Zadeh-Mamdani type; (2) using Takagi-Sugeno fuzzy rules that utilise dynamically changing and adapting values for the inference parameters. It is proved that the mEFuNNs can effectively learn complex temporal sequences in an adaptive way and outperform EFuNNs, ANFIS and other neural network and hybrid models. Rules can be inserted, extracted and adjusted continuously during the operation of the system. The characteristics of the mEFuNNs are illustrated on two bench-mark dynamic time series data, as well as on two real case studies for on-line adaptive control and decision making. Aggregation of rule nodes in evolved mEFuNNs can be achieved through fuzzy C-means clustering algorithm which is also illustrated on the bench mark data sets. The regularly trained and aggregated in an on-line, self-organised mode mEFuNNs perform as well, or better, than the mEFuNNs that use fuzzy C-means clustering algorithm for off-line rule node generation on the same data set.</p> <p><strong>Keywords: </strong>dynamic evolving fuzzy neural networks, on-line learning, adaptive control, dynamic time series prediction, fuzzy clustering</p> <p><a href="papers/dp9904nk.pdf.gz">Download</a> (gzipped PDF, 1.5MB)</p> <hr> <a name="dp9905"></a><h3>99/05: Hybrid neuro-fuzzy inference systems and their application for on-line adaptive learning of nonlinear dynamical systems</h3> <h4>J. Kim and N. Kasabov</h4> <p>In this paper, an adaptive neuro-fuzzy system, called HyFIS, is proposed to build and optimise fuzzy models. The proposed model introduces the learning power of neural networks into the fuzzy logic systems and provides linguistic meaning to the connectionist architectures. Heuristic fuzzy logic rules and input-output fuzzy membership functions can be optimally tuned from training examples by a hybrid learning scheme composed of two phases: the phase of rule generation from data, and the phase of rule tuning by using the error backpropagation learning scheme for a neural fuzzy system. In order to illustrate the performance and applicability of the proposed neuro-fuzzy hybrid model, extensive simulation studies of nonlinear complex dynamics are carried out. The proposed method can be applied to on-line incremental adaptive leaning for the purpose of prediction and control of non-linear dynamical systems.</p> <p><strong>Keywords: </strong>neuro-fuzzy systems, neural networks, fuzzy logic, parameter and structure learning, knowledge acquisition, adaptation, time series</p> <hr> <a name="dp9906"></a><h3>99/06: A distributed architecture for environmental information systems</h3> <h4>M.K. Purvis, S. Cranefield and M. Nowostawski</h4> <p>The increasing availability and variety of large environmental data sets is opening new opportunities for data mining and useful cross-referencing of disparate environmental data sets distributed over a network. In order to take advantage of these opportunities, environmental information systems will need to operate effectively in a distributed, open environment. In this paper, we describe the New Zealand Distributed Information System (NZDIS) software architecture for environmental information systems. In order to optimise extensibility, openness, and flexible query processing, the architecture is organised into collaborating software agents that communicate by means of a standard declarative agent communication language. The metadata of environmental data sources are stored as part of agent ontologies, which represent information models of the domain of the data repository. The agents and the associated ontological framework are designed as much as possible to take advantage of standard object-oriented technology, such as CORBA, UML, and OQL, in order to enhance the openness and accessibility of the system.</p> <p><a href="papers/dp9906mp.pdf.gz">Download</a> (gzipped PDF, 156Kb)</p> <hr> <a name="dp9907"></a><h3>99/07: From hybrid adjustable neuro-fuzzy systems to adaptive connectionist-based systems for phoneme and word recognition</h3> <h4>N. Kasabov, R. Kilgour and S. Sinclair</h4> <p>This paper discusses the problem of adaptation in automatic speech recognition systems (ASRS) and suggests several strategies for adaptation in a modular architecture for speech recognition. The architecture allows for adaptation at different levels of the recognition process, where modules can be adapted individually based on their performance and the performance of the whole system. Two realisations of this architecture are presented along with experimental results from small-scale experiments. The first realisation is a hybrid system for speaker-independent phoneme-based spoken word recognition, consisting of neural networks for recognising English phonemes and fuzzy systems for modelling acoustic and linguistic knowledge. This system is adjustable by additional training of individual neural network modules and tuning the fuzzy systems. The increased accuracy of the recognition through appropriate adjustment is also discussed. The second realisation of the architecture is a connectionist system that uses fuzzy neural networks FuNNs to accommodate both a prior linguistic knowledge and data from a speech corpus. A method for on-line adaptation of FuNNs is also presented.</p> <p><strong>Keywords: </strong>pattern recognition, artificial intelligence, neural networks, speech recognition</p> <hr> <a name="dp9908"></a><h3>99/08: Adaptive, evolving, hybrid connectionist systems for image pattern recognition</h3> <h4>N. Kasabov, S. Israel and B. Woodford</h4> <p>The chapter presents a new methodology for building adaptive, incremental learning systems for image pattern classification. The systems are based on dynamically evolving fuzzy neural networks that are neural architectures to realise connectionist learning, fuzzy logic inference, and case-based reasoning. The methodology and the architecture are applied on two sets of real data—one of satellite image data, and the other of fruit image data. The proposed method and architecture encourage fast learning, life-long learning and on-line learning when the system operates in a changing environment of image data.</p> <p><strong>Keywords: </strong>image classification, evolving fuzzy neural networks, case-based reasoning</p> <p><a href="papers/dp9908nk.pdf.gz">Download</a> (gzipped PDF, 1.2MB)</p> <hr> <a name="dp9909"></a><h3>99/09: The concepts of hidden Markov model in speech recognition</h3> <h4>W. Abdulla and N. Kasabov</h4> <p>The speech recognition field is one of the most challenging fields that has faced scientists for a long time. The complete solution is still far from reach. The efforts are concentrated with huge funds from the companies to different related and supportive approaches to reach the final goal. Then, apply it to the enormous applications that are still waiting for the successful speech recognisers that are free from the constraints of speakers, vocabularies or environment. This task is not an easy one due to the interdisciplinary nature of the problem and as it requires speech perception to be implied in the recogniser (Speech Understanding Systems) which in turn point strongly to the use of intelligence within the systems.</p> <p>The bare techniques of recognisers (without intelligence) are following wide varieties of approaches with different claims of success by each group of authors who put their faith in their favourite way. However, the sole technique that gains the acceptance of the researchers to be the state of the art is the Hidden Markov Model (HMM) technique. HMM is agreed to be the most promising one. It might be used successfully with other techniques to improve the performance, such as hybridising the HMM with Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) algorithms. This does not mean that the HMM is pure from approximations that are far from reality, such as the successive observations independence, but the results and potential of this algorithm is reliable. The modifications on HMM take the burden of releasing it from these poorly representative approximations hoping for better results.</p> <p>In this report we are going to describe the backbone of the HMM technique with the main outlines for successful implementation. The representation and implementation of HMM varies in one way or another but the main idea is the same as well as the results and computation costs, it is a matter of preferences to choose one. Our preference here is that adopted by Ferguson and Rabiner et al.</p> <p>In this report we will describe the Markov Chain, and then investigate a very popular model in the speech recognition field (the Left-Right HMM Topology). The mathematical formulations needed to be implemented will be fully explained as they are crucial in building the HMM. The prominent factors in the design will also be discussed. Finally we conclude this report by some experimental results to see the practical outcomes of the implemented model.</p> <p><a href="papers/dp9909wa.pdf.gz">Download</a> (gzipped PDF, 489KB)</p> <hr> <a name="dp9910"></a><h3>99/10: Finding medical information on the Internet: Who should do it and what should they know</h3> <h4>D. Parry</h4> <p>More and more medical information is appearing on the Internet, but it is not easy to get at the nuggets amongst all the spoil. Bruce McKenzie’s editorial in the December 1997 edition of <EM>SIM Quarterly</EM> dealt very well with the problems of quality, but I would suggest that the problem of accessibility is as much of a challenge. As ever-greater quantities of high quality medical information are published electronically, the need to be able to find it becomes imperative. There are a number of tools to find what you want on the Internet—search engines, agents, indexing and classification schemes and hyperlinks, but their use requires care, skill and experience.</p> <p><a href="papers/dp9910dp.pdf.gz">Download</a> (gzipped PDF, 142KB)</p> <hr> <a name="dp9911"></a><h3>99/11: Software metrics data analysis—Exploring the relative performance of some commonly used modeling techniques</h3> <h4>A. Gray and S. MacDonell</h4> <p>Whilst some software measurement research has been unquestionably successful, other research has struggled to enable expected advances in project and process management. Contributing to this lack of advancement has been the incidence of inappropriate or non-optimal application of various model-building procedures. This obviously raises questions over the validity and reliability of any results obtained as well as the conclusions that may have been drawn regarding the appropriateness of the techniques in question. In this paper we investigate the influence of various data set characteristics and the purpose of analysis on the effectiveness of four model-building techniques—three statistical methods and one neural network method. In order to illustrate the impact of data set characteristics, three separate data sets, drawn from the literature, are used in this analysis. In terms of predictive accuracy, it is shown that no one modeling method is best in every case. Some consideration of the characteristics of data sets should therefore occur before analysis begins, so that the most appropriate modeling method is then used. Moreover, issues other than predictive accuracy may have a significant influence on the selection of model-building methods. These issues are also addressed here and a series of guidelines for selecting among and implementing these and other modeling techniques is discussed.</p> <p><strong>Keywords: </strong>software metrics, analysis, statistical methods, connectionist methods</p> <p><a href="papers/dp9911ag.pdf.gz">Download</a> (gzipped PDF, 219KB)</p> <hr> <a name="dp9912"></a><h3>99/12: Software forensics for discriminating between program authors using case-based reasoning, feed-forward neural networks and multiple discriminant analysis</h3> <h4>S. MacDonell, A. Gray, G. MacLennan and P. Sallis</h4> <p>Software forensics is a research field that, by treating pieces of program source code as linguistically and stylistically analyzable entities, attempts to investigate aspects of computer program authorship. This can be performed with the goal of identification, discrimination, or characterization of authors. In this paper we extract a set of 26 standard authorship metrics from 351 programs by 7 different authors. The use of feed-forward neural networks, multiple discriminant analysis, and case-based reasoning is then investigated in terms of classification accuracy for the authors on both training and testing samples. The first two techniques produce remarkably similar results, with the best results coming from the case-based reasoning models. All techniques have high prediction accuracy rates, supporting the feasibility of the task of discriminating program authors based on source-code measurements.</p> <p><a href="papers/dp9912sm.pdf.gz">Download</a> (gzipped PDF, 123KB)</p> <hr> <a name="dp9913"></a><h3>99/13: FULSOME: Fuzzy logic for software metric practitioners and researchers</h3> <h4>S. MacDonell, A. Gray and J. Calvert</h4> <p>There has been increasing interest in recent times for using fuzzy logic techniques to represent software metric models, especially those predicting development effort. The use of fuzzy logic for this application area offers several advantages when compared to other commonly used techniques. These include the use of a single model with different levels of precision for inputs and outputs used throughout the development life cycle, the possibility of model development with little or no data, and its effectiveness when used as a communication tool. The use of fuzzy logic in any applied field however requires that suitable tools are available for both practitioners and researchers—satisfying both interface and functionality related requirements. After outlining some of the specific needs of the software metrics community, including results from a survey of software developers on this topic, the paper describes the use of a set of tools called FULSOME (Fuzzy Logic for Software Metrics). The development of a simple fuzzy logic system by a software metrician and subsequent tuning are then discussed using a real-world set of software metric data. The automatically generated fuzzy model performs acceptably when compared to regression-based models.</p> <p><a href="papers/dp9913sm.pdf.gz">Download</a> (gzipped PDF, 201KB)</p> <hr> <a name="dp9914"></a><h3>99/14: Assessing prediction systems</h3> <h4>B. Kitchenham, S. MacDonell, L. Pickard and M. Shepperd</h4> <p>For some years software engineers have been attempting to develop useful prediction systems to estimate such attributes as the effort to develop a piece of software and the likely number of defects. Typically, prediction systems are proposed and then subjected to empirical evaluation. Claims are then made with regard to the quality of the prediction systems. A wide variety of prediction quality indicators have been suggested in the literature. Unfortunately, we believe that a somewhat confusing state of affairs prevails and that this impedes research progress. This paper aims to provide the research community with a better understanding of the meaning of, and relationship between, these indicators. We critically review twelve different approaches by considering them as descriptors of the residual variable. We demonstrate that the two most popular indicators MMRE and pred(25) are in fact indicators of the spread and shape respectively of prediction accuracy where prediction accuracy is the ratio of estimate to actual (or actual to estimate). Next we highlight the impact of the choice of indicator by comparing three prediction systems derived using four different simulated datasets. We demonstrate that the results of such a comparison depend upon the choice of indicator, the analysis technique, and the nature of the dataset used to derive the predictive model. We conclude that prediction systems cannot be characterised by a single summary statistic. We suggest that we need indicators of the central tendency and spread of accuracy as well as indicators of shape and bias. For this reason, boxplots of relative error or residuals are useful alternatives to simple summary metrics.</p> <p><strong>Keywords: </strong>prediction systems, estimation, empirical analysis, metrics, goodness-of-fit statistics</p> <p><a href="papers/dp9914bk.pdf.gz">Download</a> (gzipped PDF, 239KB)</p> <hr> <h3><a name="dp9915">99/15: Industry practices in project management for multimedia information systems</a></h3> <h4>S. MacDonell and T. Fletcher</h4> <p>This paper describes ongoing research directed at formulating a set of appropriate measures for assessing and ultimately predicting effort requirements for multimedia systems development. Whilst significant advances have been made in the determination of measures for both transaction-based and process-intensive systems, very little work has been undertaken in relation to measures for multimedia systems. A small preliminary empirical study is reviewed as a precursor to a more exploratory investigation of the factors that are considered by industry to be influential in determining development effort. This work incorporates the development and use of a goal-based framework to assist the measure selection process from a literature basis, followed by an industry questionnaire. The results provide a number of preliminary but nevertheless useful insights into contemporary project management practices with respect to multimedia systems.</p> <p><a href="papers/dp9915sm.pdf.gz">Download</a> (gzipped PDF, 167KB)</p> <hr> <a name="dp9916"></a><h3>99/16: Factors systematically associated with errors in subjective estimates of software development effort: The stability of expert judgment</h3> <h4>A. Gray, S. MacDonell and M. Shepperd</h4> <p>Software metric-based estimation of project development effort is most often performed by expert judgment rather than by using an empirically derived model (although such may be used by the expert to assist their decision). One question that can be asked about these estimates is how stable are they with respect to characteristics of the development process and product? This stability can be assessed in relation to the degree to which the project has advanced over time, the type of module for which the estimate is being made, and the characteristics of that module. In this paper we examine a set of expert-derived estimates for the effort required to develop a collection of modules from a large health-care system. Statistical tests are used to identify relationships between the type (screen or report) and characteristics of modules and the likelihood of the associated development effort being under-estimated, approximately correct, or over-estimated. Distinct relationships are found that suggest that the estimation process being examined was not unbiased to such characteristics.</p> <p><a href="papers/dp9916ag.pdf.gz">Download</a> (gzipped PDF, 199KB)</p> <hr> <a name="dp9917"></a><h3>99/17: The NZDIS project: An agent-based distributed information systems architecture</h3> <h4>M.K. Purvis, S. Cranefield, G. Bush, D. Carter, B. McKinlay, M. Nowostawski and R. Ward</h4> <p>This paper describes an architecture for building distributed information systems from existing information resources, based on distributed object and software agent technologies. This architecture is being developed as part of the New Zealand Distributed Information Systems (NZDIS) project.</p> <p>An agent-based architecture is used: information sources are encapsulated as information agents that accept messages in an agent communication language (the FIPA ACL). A user agent assists users to browse ontologies appropriate to their domain of interest and to construct queries based on terms from one or more ontologies. One or more query processing agents are then responsible for discovering (from a resource broker agent) which data source agents are relevant to the query, decomposing the query into subqueries suitable for those agents (including the translation of the query into the specific ontologies implemented by those agents), executing the subqueries and translating and combining the subquery results into the desired result set.</p> <p>Novel features of this system include the use of standards from the object-oriented community such as the Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA) (as a communications infrastructure), the Unified Modeling Language (used as an ontology representation language), the Object Data Management Group’s Object Query Language (used for queries) and the Object Management Group’s Meta Object Facility (used as the basis for an ontology repository agent). Query results need not be returned within an ACL message, but may instead be represented by a CORBA object reference which may be used to obtain the result set.</p> <p><a href="papers/dp9917mp.pdf.gz">Download</a> (gzipped PDF, 171KB)</p> <hr> <a name="dp9918"></a><h3>99/18: HTN planning for information processing tasks</h3> <h4>S. Cranefield</h4> <p>This paper discusses the problem of integrated planning and execution for tasks that involve the consumption, production and alteration of relational information. Unlike information retrieval problems, the information processing domain requires explicit modelling of the changing information state of the domain and how the validity of resources changes as actions are performed. A solution to this problem is presented in the form of a specialised hierarchical task network planning model. A distinction is made between the information processing effects of an action (modelled in terms of constraints relating the domain information before and after the action) and the actions’ preconditions and effects which are expressed in terms of required, produced and invalidated resources. The information flow between tasks is explicitly represented in methods and plans, including any required information-combining operations such as selection and union.</p> <p>The paper presents the semantics of this model and discusses implementation issues arising from the extension of an existing HTN planner (SHOP) to support this model of planning.</p> <p><strong>Keywords: </strong>HTN planning, information processing, integrated planning and execution</p> <p><a href="papers/dp9918sc.pdf.gz">Download</a> (gzipped PDF, 147KB)</p> <hr> <a name="dp9919"></a><h3>99/19: Automated scoring of practical tests in an introductory course in information technology</h3> <h4>G. Kennedy</h4> <p>In an introductory course in information technology at the University of Otago the acquisition of practical skills is considered to be a prime objective. An effective way of assessing the achievement of this objective is by means of a ‘practical test’, in which students are required to accomplish simple tasks in a controlled environment. The assessment of such work demands a high level of expertise, is very labour intensive and can suffer from marker inconsistency, particularly with large candidatures.</p> <p>This paper describes the results of a trial in which the efforts of one thousand students in a practical test of word processing were scored by means of a program written in MediaTalk. Details of the procedure are given, including sampling strategies for the purpose of validation and examples of problems that were encountered.</p> <p>It was concluded that the approach was useful, and once properly validated gave rise to considerable savings in the time and effort.</p> <p><strong>Keywords: </strong>computer-aided learning, automated scoring, computer education, test validation</p> <p><a href="papers/dp9919gk.pdf.gz">Download</a> (gzipped PDF, 138KB)</p> <hr> <a name="dp9920"></a><h3>99/20: Fuzzy logic for software metric models throughout the development life-cycle</h3> <h4>A. Gray and S. MacDonell</h4> <p>One problem faced by managers who are using project management models is the elicitation of numerical inputs. Obtaining these with any degree of confidence early in a project is not always feasible. Related to this difficulty is the risk of precisely specified outputs from models leading to overcommitment. These problems can be seen as the collective failure of software measurements to represent the inherent uncertainties in managers’ knowledge of the development products, resources, and processes. It is proposed that fuzzy logic techniques can help to overcome some of these difficulties by representing the imprecision in inputs and outputs, as well as providing a more expert-knowledge based approach to model building. The use of fuzzy logic for project management however should not be the same throughout the development life cycle. Different levels of available information and desired precision suggest that it can be used differently depending on the current phase, although a single model can be used for consistency.</p> <p><a href="papers/dp9920ag.pdf.gz">Download</a> (gzipped PDF, 120KB)</p> <hr> <a name="dp9921"></a><h3>99/21: Wayfinding/navigation within a QTVR virtual environment: Preliminary results</h3> <h4>B. Norris, D. Rashid and W. Wong</h4> <p>This paper reports on an investigation into wayfinding principles, and their effectiveness within a virtual environment. To investigate these principles, a virtual environment of an actual museum was created using QuickTime Virtual Reality. Wayfinding principles used in the real world were identified and used to design the interaction of the virtual environment. The initial findings suggests that real-world navigation principles, such as the use of map and landmark principles, can significantly help navigation within this virtual environment. However, navigation difficulties were discovered through an Activity Theory-based Cognitive Task Analysis.</p> <p><strong>Keywords: </strong>wayfinding, navigation, QTVR, virtual environments, activity theory</p> <hr> <a name="dp9922"></a><h3>99/22: Predictive modelling of plankton dynamics in freshwater lakes using genetic programming</h3> <h4>P. Whigham and F. Recknagel</h4> <p>Building predictive time series models for freshwater systems is important both for understanding the dynamics of these natural systems and in the development of decision support and management software. This work describes the application of a machine learning technique, namely genetic programming (GP), to the prediction of chlorophyll-a. The system endeavoured to evolve several mathematical time series equations, based on limnological and climate variables, which could predict the dynamics of chlorophyll-a on unseen data. The predictive accuracy of the genetic programming approach was compared with an artificial neural network and a deterministic algal growth model. The GP system evolved some solutions which were improvements over the neural network and showed that the transparent nature of the solutions may allow inferences about underlying processes to be made. This work demonstrates that non-linear processes in natural systems may be successfully modelled through the use of machine learning techniques. Further, it shows that genetic programming may be used as a tool for exploring the driving processes underlying freshwater system dynamics.</p> <p><a href="papers/dp9922pw.pdf.gz">Download</a> (gzipped PDF, 234KB)</p> <hr> <a name="dp9923"></a><h3>99/23: Modifications to Smith’s method for deriving normalised relations from a functional dependency diagram</h3> <h4>N. Stanger</h4> <p>Smith’s method (Smith, 1995) is a formal technique for deriving a set of normalised relations from a functional dependency diagram (FDD). Smith’s original rules for deriving these relations are incomplete, as they do not fully address the issue of determining the foreign key links between relations. In addition, one of the rules for deriving foreign keys can produce incorrect results, while the other rule is difficult to automate. In this paper are described solutions these issues.</p> <p><a href="papers/dp9923ns.pdf.gz">Download</a> (gzipped PDF, 158KB)</p> <hr> <a name="dp9924"></a><h3>99/24: The development of an electronic distance learning course in health informatics</h3> <h4>D. Parry, S. Cockcroft, A. Breton, D. Abernethy and J. Gillies</h4> <p>Since 1997 the authors have been involved in the development of a distance learning course in health informatics. The course is delivered via CD-ROM and the Internet. During this process we have learned valuable lessons about computer-assisted collaboration and cooperative work. In particular we have developed methods of using the software tools available for communication and education. We believe that electronic distance learning offers a realistic means of providing education in health informatics and other fields to students whom for reasons of geography or work commitments would not be able to participate in a conventional course.</p> <p><a href="papers/dp9924dp.pdf.gz">Download</a> (gzipped PDF, 484KB)</p> <hr> <a name="dp9925"></a><h3>99/25: Infiltrating IT into primary care: A case study</h3> <h4>S. Cockcroft, D. Parry, A. Breton, D. Abernethy and J. Gillies</h4> <p>Web based approaches to tracking students on placement are receiving much interest in the field of medical education The work presented here describes a web-based solution to the problem of managing data collection from student encounters with patients whilst on placement. The solution has been developed by postgraduate students under the direction of staff of the health informatics diploma. Specifically, the system allows undergraduate students on placement or in the main hospital to access a web-based front end to a database designed to store the data that they are required to gather. The system also has the important effect of providing a rationale for the provision of electronic communication to the undergraduate students within the context of healthcare delivery. We believe that an additional effect will be to expose practicing healthcare providers to electronic information systems, along with the undergraduates who are trained to use them, and increase the skill base of the practitioners.</p> <p><a href="papers/dp9925so.pdf.gz">Download</a> (gzipped PDF, 72KB)</p> <hr> <a name="dp9926"></a><h3>99/26: Using rough sets to study expert behaviour in induction of labour</h3> <h4>D. Parry, W.K. Yeap and N. Pattison</h4> <p>The rate of induction of labour (IOL) is increasing, despite no obvious increase in the incidence of the major indications. However the rate varies widely between different centres and practitioners and this does not seem to be due to variations in patient populations. The IOL decision-making process of six clinicians was recorded and examined using hypothetical scenarios presented on a computer. Several rules were identified from a rough sets analysis of the data. These rules were compared to the actual practise of these clinicians in 1994 Initial tests of these rules show that they may form a suitable set for developing an expert system for the induction of labour.</p> <p><strong>Keywords: </strong>rough sets, obstetrics, knowledge acquisition</p> <p><a href="papers/dp9926dp.pdf.gz">Download</a> (gzipped PDF, 78KB)</p> <hr> <a name="dp9927"></a><h3>99/27: Using the Internet to teach health informatics</h3> <h4>D. Parry, A. Breton, D. Abernethy, S. Cockcroft and J. Gillies</h4> <p>Since July 1998 we have been teaching an Internet-based distance learning course in health informatics (<a href="http://basil.otago.ac.nz:800">http://basil.otago.ac.nz:800</a>). The development of this course and the experiences we have had running it are described in this paper. The course was delivered using paper materials, a face-to-face workshop, a CD-ROM and Internet communication tools. We currently have about 30 students around New Zealand, a mixture of physicians, nurses and other health staff. Some teaching methods have worked, some haven’t, but in the process we have learned a number of valuable lessons.</p> <p><strong>Keywords: </strong>distance learning, healthcare, Internet, CD-ROM</p> <p><a href="papers/dp9927dp.pdf.gz">Download</a> (gzipped PDF, 69KB)</p>

Ignore Space Show notes View

Website/dp1999-abstracts-contents.htm

<div class="sectionTitle">Information Science Discussion Papers Series: 1999 Abstracts</div>

<hr>

<a name="dp1999-01"></a><h3>99/01: UML as an ontology modelling language</h3>

<h4>S. Cranefield and M. K. Purvis</h4>

<p>Current tools and techniques for ontology development are based on the traditions of AI knowledge representation research. This research has led to popular formalisms such as KIF and KL-ONE style languages. However, these representations are little known outside AI research laboratories. In contrast, commercial interest has resulted in ideas from the object-oriented programming community maturing into industry standards and powerful tools for object-oriented analysis, design and implementation. These standards and tools have a wide and rapidly growing user community. This paper examines the potential for object-oriented standards to be used for ontology modelling, and in particular presents an ontology representation language based on a subset of the Unified Modeling Language together with its associated Object Constraint Language.</p>

<p><a href="papers/dp1999-01.pdf">Download</a> (PDF, 204 KB)</p>

<hr>

<a name="dp1999-02"></a><h3>99/02: Evolving connectionist systems for on-line, knowledge-based learning: Principles and applications</h3>

<h4>N. Kasabov</h4>

<p>The paper introduces evolving connectionist systems (ECOS) as an effective approach to building on-line, adaptive intelligent systems. ECOS evolve through incremental, hybrid (supervised/unsupervised), on-line learning. They can accommodate new input data, including new features, new classes, etc. through local element tuning. New connections and new neurons are created during the operation of the system. The ECOS framework is presented and illustrated on a particular type of evolving neural networks&mdash;evolving fuzzy neural networks (EFuNNs). EFuNNs can learn spatial-temporal sequences in an adaptive way, through one pass learning. Rules can be inserted and extracted at any time of the system operation. The characteristics of ECOS and EFuNNs are illustrated on several case studies that include: adaptive pattern classification; adaptive, phoneme-based spoken language recognition; adaptive dynamic time-series prediction; intelligent agents.</p>

<p><strong>Keywords:</strong> evolving connectionist systems, evolving fuzzy neural networks, on-line learning, spatial-temporal adaptation, adaptive speech recognition</p>

<p><a href="papers/dp1999-02.pdf">Download</a> (PDF, 944 KB)</p>

<hr>

<a name="dp1999-03"></a><h3>99/03: Spatial-temporal adaptation in evolving fuzzy neural networks for on-line adaptive phoneme recognition</h3>

<h4>N. Kasabov and M. Watts</h4>

<p>The paper is a study on a new class of spatial-temporal evolving fuzzy neural network systems (EFuNNs) for on-line adaptive learning, and their applications for adaptive phoneme recognition. The systems evolve through incremental, hybrid (supervised / unsupervised) learning. They accommodate new input data, including new features, new classes, etc. through local element tuning. Both feature-based similarities and temporal dependencies, that are present in the input data, are learned and stored in the connections, and adjusted over time. This is an important requirement for the task of adaptive, speaker independent spoken language recognition, where new pronunciations and new accents need to be learned in an on-line, adaptive mode. Experiments with EFuNNs, and also with multi-layer perceptrons, and fuzzy neural networks (FuNNs), conducted on the whole set of New Zealand English phonemes, show the superiority and the potential of EFuNNs when used for the task. Spatial allocation of nodes and their aggregation in EFuNNs allow for similarity preserving and similarity observation within one phoneme data and across phonemes, while subtle temporal variations within one phoneme data can be learned and adjusted through temporal feedback connections. The experimental results support the claim that spatial-temporal organisation in EFuNNs can lead to a significant improvement in the recognition rate especially for the diphthong and the vowel phonemes in English, which in many cases are problematic for a system to learn and adjust in an adaptive way.</p>

<p><a href="papers/dp1999-03.pdf">Download</a> (PDF, 560 KB)</p>

<hr>

<a name="dp1999-04"></a><h3>99/04: Dynamic evolving fuzzy neural networks with &lsquo;m-out-of-n&rsquo; activation nodes for on-line adaptive systems</h3>

<h4>N. Kasabov and Q. Song</h4>

<p>The paper introduces a new type of evolving fuzzy neural networks (EFuNNs), denoted as mEFuNNs, for on-line learning and their applications for dynamic time series analysis and prediction. mEFuNNs evolve through incremental, hybrid (supervised/unsupervised), on-line learning, like the EFuNNs. They can accommodate new input data, including new features, new classes, etc. through local element tuning. New connections and new neurons are created during the operation of the system. At each time moment the output vector of a mEFuNN is calculated based on the m-most activated rule nodes. Two approaches are proposed: (1) using weighted fuzzy rules of Zadeh-Mamdani type; (2) using Takagi-Sugeno fuzzy rules that utilise dynamically changing and adapting values for the inference parameters. It is proved that the mEFuNNs can effectively learn complex temporal sequences in an adaptive way and outperform EFuNNs, ANFIS and other neural network and hybrid models. Rules can be inserted, extracted and adjusted continuously during the operation of the system. The characteristics of the mEFuNNs are illustrated on two bench-mark dynamic time series data, as well as on two real case studies for on-line adaptive control and decision making. Aggregation of rule nodes in evolved mEFuNNs can be achieved through fuzzy C-means clustering algorithm which is also illustrated on the bench mark data sets. The regularly trained and aggregated in an on-line, self-organised mode mEFuNNs perform as well, or better, than the mEFuNNs that use fuzzy C-means clustering algorithm for off-line rule node generation on the same data set.</p>

<p><strong>Keywords:</strong> dynamic evolving fuzzy neural networks, on-line learning, adaptive control, dynamic time series prediction, fuzzy clustering</p>

<p><a href="papers/dp1999-04.pdf">Download</a> (PDF, 2 MB)</p>

<hr>

<a name="dp1999-05"></a><h3>99/05: Hybrid neuro-fuzzy inference systems and their application for on-line adaptive learning of nonlinear dynamical systems</h3>

<h4>J. Kim and N. Kasabov</h4>

<p>In this paper, an adaptive neuro-fuzzy system, called HyFIS, is proposed to build and optimise fuzzy models. The proposed model introduces the learning power of neural networks into the fuzzy logic systems and provides linguistic meaning to the connectionist architectures. Heuristic fuzzy logic rules and input-output fuzzy membership functions can be optimally tuned from training examples by a hybrid learning scheme composed of two phases: the phase of rule generation from data, and the phase of rule tuning by using the error backpropagation learning scheme for a neural fuzzy system. In order to illustrate the performance and applicability of the proposed neuro-fuzzy hybrid model, extensive simulation studies of nonlinear complex dynamics are carried out. The proposed method can be applied to on-line incremental adaptive leaning for the purpose of prediction and control of non-linear dynamical systems.</p>

<p><strong>Keywords:</strong> neuro-fuzzy systems, neural networks, fuzzy logic, parameter and structure learning, knowledge acquisition, adaptation, time series</p>

<hr>

<a name="dp1999-06"></a><h3>99/06: A distributed architecture for environmental information systems</h3>

<h4>M. K. Purvis and S. Cranefield and M. Nowostawski</h4>

<p>The increasing availability and variety of large environmental data sets is opening new opportunities for data mining and useful cross-referencing of disparate environmental data sets distributed over a network. In order to take advantage of these opportunities, environmental information systems will need to operate effectively in a distributed, open environment. In this paper, we describe the New Zealand Distributed Information System (NZDIS) software architecture for environmental information systems. In order to optimise extensibility, openness, and flexible query processing, the architecture is organised into collaborating software agents that communicate by means of a standard declarative agent communication language. The metadata of environmental data sources are stored as part of agent ontologies, which represent information models of the domain of the data repository. The agents and the associated ontological framework are designed as much as possible to take advantage of standard object-oriented technology, such as CORBA, UML, and OQL, in order to enhance the openness and accessibility of the system.</p>

<p><a href="papers/dp1999-06.pdf">Download</a> (PDF, 208 Kb)</p>

<hr>

<a name="dp1999-07"></a><h3>99/07: From hybrid adjustable neuro-fuzzy systems to adaptive connectionist-based systems for phoneme and word recognition</h3>

<h4>N. Kasabov and R. Kilgour and S. Sinclair</h4>

<p>This paper discusses the problem of adaptation in automatic speech recognition systems (ASRS) and suggests several strategies for adaptation in a modular architecture for speech recognition. The architecture allows for adaptation at different levels of the recognition process, where modules can be adapted individually based on their performance and the performance of the whole system. Two realisations of this architecture are presented along with experimental results from small-scale experiments. The first realisation is a hybrid system for speaker-independent phoneme-based spoken word recognition, consisting of neural networks for recognising English phonemes and fuzzy systems for modelling acoustic and linguistic knowledge. This system is adjustable by additional training of individual neural network modules and tuning the fuzzy systems. The increased accuracy of the recognition through appropriate adjustment is also discussed. The second realisation of the architecture is a connectionist system that uses fuzzy neural networks FuNNs to accommodate both a prior linguistic knowledge and data from a speech corpus. A method for on-line adaptation of FuNNs is also presented.</p>

<p><strong>Keywords:</strong> pattern recognition, artificial intelligence, neural networks, speech recognition</p>

<hr>

<a name="dp1999-08"></a><h3>99/08: Adaptive, evolving, hybrid connectionist systems for image pattern recognition</h3>

<h4>N. Kasabov and S. Israel and B. Woodford</h4>

<p>The chapter presents a new methodology for building adaptive, incremental learning systems for image pattern classification. The systems are based on dynamically evolving fuzzy neural networks that are neural architectures to realise connectionist learning, fuzzy logic inference, and case-based reasoning. The methodology and the architecture are applied on two sets of real data&mdash;one of satellite image data, and the other of fruit image data. The proposed method and architecture encourage fast learning, life-long learning and on-line learning when the system operates in a changing environment of image data.</p>

<p><strong>Keywords:</strong> image classification, evolving fuzzy neural networks, case-based reasoning</p>

<p><a href="papers/dp1999-08.pdf">Download</a> (PDF, 1.3 MB)</p>

<hr>

<a name="dp1999-09"></a><h3>99/09: The concepts of hidden Markov model in speech recognition</h3>

<h4>W. Abdulla and N. Kasabov</h4>

<p>The speech recognition field is one of the most challenging fields that has faced scientists for a long time. The complete solution is still far from reach. The efforts are concentrated with huge funds from the companies to different related and supportive approaches to reach the final goal. Then, apply it to the enormous applications that are still waiting for the successful speech recognisers that are free from the constraints of speakers, vocabularies or environment. This task is not an easy one due to the interdisciplinary nature of the problem and as it requires speech perception to be implied in the recogniser (Speech Understanding Systems) which in turn point strongly to the use of intelligence within the systems.</p>

<p>The bare techniques of recognisers (without intelligence) are following wide varieties of approaches with different claims of success by each group of authors who put their faith in their favourite way. However, the sole technique that gains the acceptance of the researchers to be the state of the art is the Hidden Markov Model (HMM) technique. HMM is agreed to be the most promising one. It might be used successfully with other techniques to improve the performance, such as hybridising the HMM with Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) algorithms. This does not mean that the HMM is pure from approximations that are far from reality, such as the successive observations independence, but the results and potential of this algorithm is reliable. The modifications on HMM take the burden of releasing it from these poorly representative approximations hoping for better results.</p>

<p>In this report we are going to describe the backbone of the HMM technique with the main outlines for successful implementation. The representation and implementation of HMM varies in one way or another but the main idea is the same as well as the results and computation costs, it is a matter of preferences to choose one. Our preference here is that adopted by Ferguson and Rabiner et al.</p>

<p>In this report we will describe the Markov Chain, and then investigate a very popular model in the speech recognition field (the Left-Right HMM Topology). The mathematical formulations needed to be implemented will be fully explained as they are crucial in building the HMM. The prominent factors in the design will also be discussed. Finally we conclude this report by some experimental results to see the practical outcomes of the implemented model.</p>

<p><a href="papers/dp1999-09.pdf">Download</a> (PDF, 556 KB)</p>

<hr>

<a name="dp1999-10"></a><h3>99/10: Finding medical information on the Internet: Who should do it and what should they know</h3>

<h4>D. Parry</h4>

<p>More and more medical information is appearing on the Internet, but it is not easy to get at the nuggets amongst all the spoil. Bruce McKenzie&rsquo;s editorial in the December 1997 edition of SIM Quarterly dealt very well with the problems of quality, but I would suggest that the problem of accessibility is as much of a challenge. As ever-greater quantities of high quality medical information are published electronically, the need to be able to find it becomes imperative. There are a number of tools to find what you want on the Internet&mdash;search engines, agents, indexing and classification schemes and hyperlinks, but their use requires care, skill and experience.</p>

<p><a href="papers/dp1999-10.pdf">Download</a> (PDF, 196 KB)</p>

<hr>

<a name="dp1999-11"></a><h3>99/11: Software metrics data analysis&mdash;Exploring the relative performance of some commonly used modeling techniques</h3>

<h4>A. Gray and S. MacDonell</h4>

<p>Whilst some software measurement research has been unquestionably successful, other research has struggled to enable expected advances in project and process management. Contributing to this lack of advancement has been the incidence of inappropriate or non-optimal application of various model-building procedures. This obviously raises questions over the validity and reliability of any results obtained as well as the conclusions that may have been drawn regarding the appropriateness of the techniques in question. In this paper we investigate the influence of various data set characteristics and the purpose of analysis on the effectiveness of four model-building techniques&mdash;three statistical methods and one neural network method. In order to illustrate the impact of data set characteristics, three separate data sets, drawn from the literature, are used in this analysis. In terms of predictive accuracy, it is shown that no one modeling method is best in every case. Some consideration of the characteristics of data sets should therefore occur before analysis begins, so that the most appropriate modeling method is then used. Moreover, issues other than predictive accuracy may have a significant influence on the selection of model-building methods. These issues are also addressed here and a series of guidelines for selecting among and implementing these and other modeling techniques is discussed.</p>

<p><strong>Keywords:</strong> software metrics, analysis, statistical methods, connectionist methods</p>

<p><a href="papers/dp1999-11.pdf">Download</a> (PDF, 292 KB)</p>

<hr>

<a name="dp1999-12"></a><h3>99/12: Software forensics for discriminating between program authors using case-based reasoning, feed-forward neural networks and multiple discriminant analysis</h3>

<h4>S. MacDonell and A. Gray and G. MacLennan and P. Sallis</h4>

<p>Software forensics is a research field that, by treating pieces of program source code as linguistically and stylistically analyzable entities, attempts to investigate aspects of computer program authorship. This can be performed with the goal of identification, discrimination, or characterization of authors. In this paper we extract a set of 26 standard authorship metrics from 351 programs by 7 different authors. The use of feed-forward neural networks, multiple discriminant analysis, and case-based reasoning is then investigated in terms of classification accuracy for the authors on both training and testing samples. The first two techniques produce remarkably similar results, with the best results coming from the case-based reasoning models. All techniques have high prediction accuracy rates, supporting the feasibility of the task of discriminating program authors based on source-code measurements.</p>

<p><a href="papers/dp1999-12.pdf">Download</a> (PDF, 148 KB)</p>

<hr>

<a name="dp1999-13"></a><h3>99/13: FULSOME: Fuzzy logic for software metric practitioners and researchers</h3>

<h4>S. MacDonell and A. Gray and J. Calvert</h4>

<p>There has been increasing interest in recent times for using fuzzy logic techniques to represent software metric models, especially those predicting development effort. The use of fuzzy logic for this application area offers several advantages when compared to other commonly used techniques. These include the use of a single model with different levels of precision for inputs and outputs used throughout the development life cycle, the possibility of model development with little or no data, and its effectiveness when used as a communication tool. The use of fuzzy logic in any applied field however requires that suitable tools are available for both practitioners and researchers&mdash;satisfying both interface and functionality related requirements. After outlining some of the specific needs of the software metrics community, including results from a survey of software developers on this topic, the paper describes the use of a set of tools called FULSOME (Fuzzy Logic for Software Metrics). The development of a simple fuzzy logic system by a software metrician and subsequent tuning are then discussed using a real-world set of software metric data. The automatically generated fuzzy model performs acceptably when compared to regression-based models.</p>

<p><a href="papers/dp1999-13.pdf">Download</a> (PDF, 236 KB)</p>

<hr>

<a name="dp1999-14"></a><h3>99/14: Assessing prediction systems</h3>

<h4>B. Kitchenham and S. MacDonell and L. Pickard and M. Shepperd</h4>

<p>For some years software engineers have been attempting to develop useful prediction systems to estimate such attributes as the effort to develop a piece of software and the likely number of defects. Typically, prediction systems are proposed and then subjected to empirical evaluation. Claims are then made with regard to the quality of the prediction systems. A wide variety of prediction quality indicators have been suggested in the literature. Unfortunately, we believe that a somewhat confusing state of affairs prevails and that this impedes research progress. This paper aims to provide the research community with a better understanding of the meaning of, and relationship between, these indicators. We critically review twelve different approaches by considering them as descriptors of the residual variable. We demonstrate that the two most popular indicators MMRE and pred(25) are in fact indicators of the spread and shape respectively of prediction accuracy where prediction accuracy is the ratio of estimate to actual (or actual to estimate). Next we highlight the impact of the choice of indicator by comparing three prediction systems derived using four different simulated datasets. We demonstrate that the results of such a comparison depend upon the choice of indicator, the analysis technique, and the nature of the dataset used to derive the predictive model. We conclude that prediction systems cannot be characterised by a single summary statistic. We suggest that we need indicators of the central tendency and spread of accuracy as well as indicators of shape and bias. For this reason, boxplots of relative error or residuals are useful alternatives to simple summary metrics.</p>

<p><strong>Keywords:</strong> prediction systems, estimation, empirical analysis, metrics, goodness-of-fit statistics</p>

<p><a href="papers/dp1999-14.pdf">Download</a> (PDF, 304 KB)</p>

<hr>

<a name="dp1999-15"></a><h3>99/15: Industry practices in project management for multimedia information systems</h3>

<h4>S. MacDonell and T. Fletcher</h4>

<p>This paper describes ongoing research directed at formulating a set of appropriate measures for assessing and ultimately predicting effort requirements for multimedia systems development. Whilst significant advances have been made in the determination of measures for both transaction-based and process-intensive systems, very little work has been undertaken in relation to measures for multimedia systems. A small preliminary empirical study is reviewed as a precursor to a more exploratory investigation of the factors that are considered by industry to be influential in determining development effort. This work incorporates the development and use of a goal-based framework to assist the measure selection process from a literature basis, followed by an industry questionnaire. The results provide a number of preliminary but nevertheless useful insights into contemporary project management practices with respect to multimedia systems.</p>

<p><a href="papers/dp1999-15.pdf">Download</a> (PDF, 228 KB)</p>

<hr>

<a name="dp1999-16"></a><h3>99/16: Factors systematically associated with errors in subjective estimates of software development effort: The stability of expert judgment</h3>

<h4>A. Gray and S. MacDonell and M. Shepperd</h4>

<p>Software metric-based estimation of project development effort is most often performed by expert judgment rather than by using an empirically derived model (although such may be used by the expert to assist their decision). One question that can be asked about these estimates is how stable are they with respect to characteristics of the development process and product? This stability can be assessed in relation to the degree to which the project has advanced over time, the type of module for which the estimate is being made, and the characteristics of that module. In this paper we examine a set of expert-derived estimates for the effort required to develop a collection of modules from a large health-care system. Statistical tests are used to identify relationships between the type (screen or report) and characteristics of modules and the likelihood of the associated development effort being under-estimated, approximately correct, or over-estimated. Distinct relationships are found that suggest that the estimation process being examined was not unbiased to such characteristics.</p>

<p><a href="papers/dp1999-16.pdf">Download</a> (PDF, 236 KB)</p>

<hr>

<a name="dp1999-17"></a><h3>99/17: The NZDIS project: An agent-based distributed information systems architecture</h3>

<h4>M. K. Purvis and S. Cranefield and G. Bush and D. Carter and B. McKinlay and M. Nowostawski and R. Ward</h4>

<p>This paper describes an architecture for building distributed information systems from existing information resources, based on distributed object and software agent technologies. This architecture is being developed as part of the New Zealand Distributed Information Systems (NZDIS) project.</p>

<p>An agent-based architecture is used: information sources are encapsulated as information agents that accept messages in an agent communication language (the FIPA ACL). A user agent assists users to browse ontologies appropriate to their domain of interest and to construct queries based on terms from one or more ontologies. One or more query processing agents are then responsible for discovering (from a resource broker agent) which data source agents are relevant to the query, decomposing the query into subqueries suitable for those agents (including the translation of the query into the specific ontologies implemented by those agents), executing the subqueries and translating and combining the subquery results into the desired result set.</p>

<p>Novel features of this system include the use of standards from the object-oriented community such as the Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA) (as a communications infrastructure), the Unified Modeling Language (used as an ontology representation language), the Object Data Management Group&rsquo;s Object Query Language (used for queries) and the Object Management Group&rsquo;s Meta Object Facility (used as the basis for an ontology repository agent). Query results need not be returned within an ACL message, but may instead be represented by a CORBA object reference which may be used to obtain the result set.</p>

<p><a href="papers/dp1999-17.pdf">Download</a> (PDF, 212 KB)</p>

<hr>

<a name="dp1999-18"></a><h3>99/18: HTN planning for information processing tasks</h3>

<h4>S. Cranefield</h4>

<p>This paper discusses the problem of integrated planning and execution for tasks that involve the consumption, production and alteration of relational information. Unlike information retrieval problems, the information processing domain requires explicit modelling of the changing information state of the domain and how the validity of resources changes as actions are performed. A solution to this problem is presented in the form of a specialised hierarchical task network planning model. A distinction is made between the information processing effects of an action (modelled in terms of constraints relating the domain information before and after the action) and the actions&rsquo; preconditions and effects which are expressed in terms of required, produced and invalidated resources. The information flow between tasks is explicitly represented in methods and plans, including any required information-combining operations such as selection and union.</p>

<p>The paper presents the semantics of this model and discusses implementation issues arising from the extension of an existing HTN planner (SHOP) to support this model of planning.</p>

<p><strong>Keywords:</strong> HTN planning, information processing, integrated planning and execution</p>

<p><a href="papers/dp1999-18.pdf">Download</a> (PDF, 188 KB)</p>

<hr>

<a name="dp1999-19"></a><h3>99/19: Automated scoring of practical tests in an introductory course in information technology</h3>

<h4>G. Kennedy</h4>

<p>In an introductory course in information technology at the University of Otago the acquisition of practical skills is considered to be a prime objective. An effective way of assessing the achievement of this objective is by means of a &lsquo;practical test&rsquo;, in which students are required to accomplish simple tasks in a controlled environment. The assessment of such work demands a high level of expertise, is very labour intensive and can suffer from marker inconsistency, particularly with large candidatures.</p>

<p>This paper describes the results of a trial in which the efforts of one thousand students in a practical test of word processing were scored by means of a program written in MediaTalk. Details of the procedure are given, including sampling strategies for the purpose of validation and examples of problems that were encountered.</p>

<p>It was concluded that the approach was useful, and once properly validated gave rise to considerable savings in the time and effort.</p>

<p><strong>Keywords:</strong> computer-aided learning, automated scoring, computer education, test validation</p>

<p><a href="papers/dp1999-19.pdf">Download</a> (PDF, 216 KB)</p>

<hr>

<a name="dp1999-20"></a><h3>99/20: Fuzzy logic for software metric models throughout the development life-cycle</h3>

<h4>A. Gray and S. MacDonell</h4>

<p>One problem faced by managers who are using project management models is the elicitation of numerical inputs. Obtaining these with any degree of confidence early in a project is not always feasible. Related to this difficulty is the risk of precisely specified outputs from models leading to overcommitment. These problems can be seen as the collective failure of software measurements to represent the inherent uncertainties in managers&rsquo; knowledge of the development products, resources, and processes. It is proposed that fuzzy logic techniques can help to overcome some of these difficulties by representing the imprecision in inputs and outputs, as well as providing a more expert-knowledge based approach to model building. The use of fuzzy logic for project management however should not be the same throughout the development life cycle. Different levels of available information and desired precision suggest that it can be used differently depending on the current phase, although a single model can be used for consistency.</p>

<p><a href="papers/dp1999-20.pdf">Download</a> (PDF, 148 KB)</p>

<hr>

<a name="dp1999-21"></a><h3>99/21: Wayfinding/navigation within a QTVR virtual environment: Preliminary results</h3>

<h4>B. Norris and D. Rashid and W. Wong</h4>

<p>This paper reports on an investigation into wayfinding principles, and their effectiveness within a virtual environment. To investigate these principles, a virtual environment of an actual museum was created using QuickTime Virtual Reality. Wayfinding principles used in the real world were identified and used to design the interaction of the virtual environment. The initial findings suggests that real-world navigation principles, such as the use of map and landmark principles, can significantly help navigation within this virtual environment. However, navigation difficulties were discovered through an Activity Theory-based Cognitive Task Analysis.</p>

<p><strong>Keywords:</strong> wayfinding, navigation, QTVR, virtual environments, activity theory</p>

<hr>

<a name="dp1999-22"></a><h3>99/22: Predictive modelling of plankton dynamics in freshwater lakes using genetic programming</h3>

<h4>P. Whigham and F. Recknagel</h4>

<p>Building predictive time series models for freshwater systems is important both for understanding the dynamics of these natural systems and in the development of decision support and management software. This work describes the application of a machine learning technique, namely genetic programming (GP), to the prediction of chlorophyll-a. The system endeavoured to evolve several mathematical time series equations, based on limnological and climate variables, which could predict the dynamics of chlorophyll-a on unseen data. The predictive accuracy of the genetic programming approach was compared with an artificial neural network and a deterministic algal growth model. The GP system evolved some solutions which were improvements over the neural network and showed that the transparent nature of the solutions may allow inferences about underlying processes to be made. This work demonstrates that non-linear processes in natural systems may be successfully modelled through the use of machine learning techniques. Further, it shows that genetic programming may be used as a tool for exploring the driving processes underlying freshwater system dynamics.</p>

<p><a href="papers/dp1999-22.pdf">Download</a> (PDF, 264 KB)</p>

<hr>

<a name="dp1999-23"></a><h3>99/23: Modifications to Smith&rsquo;s method for deriving normalised relations from a functional dependency diagram</h3>

<h4>N. Stanger</h4>

<p>Smith&rsquo;s method (Smith, 1985) is a formal technique for deriving a set of normalised relations from a functional dependency diagram (FDD). Smith&rsquo;s original rules for deriving these relations are incomplete, as they do not fully address the issue of determining the foreign key links between relations. In addition, one of the rules for deriving foreign keys can produce incorrect results, while the other rule is difficult to automate. In this paper are described solutions these issues.</p>

<p><strong>Keywords:</strong> normalisation functional dependencies relational model data model translation</p>

<p><a href="papers/dp1999-23.pdf">Download</a> (PDF, 184 KB)</p>

<hr>

<a name="dp1999-24"></a><h3>99/24: The development of an electronic distance learning course in health informatics</h3>

<h4>D. Parry and S. Cockcroft and A. Breton and D. Abernethy and J. Gillies</h4>

<p>Since 1997 the authors have been involved in the development of a distance learning course in health informatics. The course is delivered via CD-ROM and the Internet. During this process we have learned valuable lessons about computer-assisted collaboration and cooperative work. In particular we have developed methods of using the software tools available for communication and education. We believe that electronic distance learning offers a realistic means of providing education in health informatics and other fields to students whom for reasons of geography or work commitments would not be able to participate in a conventional course.</p>

<p><a href="papers/dp1999-24.pdf">Download</a> (PDF, 496 KB)</p>

<hr>

<a name="dp1999-25"></a><h3>99/25: Infiltrating IT into primary care: A case study</h3>

<h4>S. Cockcroft and D. Parry and A. Breton and D. Abernethy and J. Gillies</h4>

<p>Web based approaches to tracking students on placement are receiving much interest in the field of medical education The work presented here describes a web-based solution to the problem of managing data collection from student encounters with patients whilst on placement. The solution has been developed by postgraduate students under the direction of staff of the health informatics diploma. Specifically, the system allows undergraduate students on placement or in the main hospital to access a web-based front end to a database designed to store the data that they are required to gather. The system also has the important effect of providing a rationale for the provision of electronic communication to the undergraduate students within the context of healthcare delivery. We believe that an additional effect will be to expose practicing healthcare providers to electronic information systems, along with the undergraduates who are trained to use them, and increase the skill base of the practitioners.</p>

<p><a href="papers/dp1999-25.pdf">Download</a> (PDF, 92 KB)</p>

<hr>

<a name="dp1999-26"></a><h3>99/26: Using rough sets to study expert behaviour in induction of labour</h3>

<h4>D. Parry and W. K. Yeap and N. Pattison</h4>

<p>The rate of induction of labour (IOL) is increasing, despite no obvious increase in the incidence of the major indications. However the rate varies widely between different centres and practitioners and this does not seem to be due to variations in patient populations. The IOL decision-making process of six clinicians was recorded and examined using hypothetical scenarios presented on a computer. Several rules were identified from a rough sets analysis of the data. These rules were compared to the actual practise of these clinicians in 1994 Initial tests of these rules show that they may form a suitable set for developing an expert system for the induction of labour.</p>

<p><strong>Keywords:</strong> rough sets, obstetrics, knowledge acquisition</p>

<p><a href="papers/dp1999-26.pdf">Download</a> (PDF, 108 KB)</p>

<hr>

<a name="dp1999-27"></a><h3>99/27: Using the Internet to teach health informatics</h3>

<h4>D. Parry and A. Breton and D. Abernethy and S. Cockcroft and J. Gillies</h4>

<p>Since July 1998 we have been teaching an Internet-based distance learning course in health informatics (http://basil.otago.ac.nz:800). The development of this course and the experiences we have had running it are described in this paper. The course was delivered using paper materials, a face-to-face workshop, a CD-ROM and Internet communication tools. We currently have about 30 students around New Zealand, a mixture of physicians, nurses and other health staff. Some teaching methods have worked, some haven&rsquo;t, but in the process we have learned a number of valuable lessons.</p>

<p><strong>Keywords:</strong> distance learning, healthcare, Internet, CD-ROM</p>

<p><a href="papers/dp1999-27.pdf">Download</a> (PDF, 80 KB)</p>

<div class="sectionTitle">Information Science Discussion Papers Series: 1999 Abstracts</div>

<hr>

<a name="dp9901"></a><h3>99/01: UML as an ontology modelling language</h3>
<h4>S. Cranefield and M.K. Purvis</h4>

<p><a href="papers/dp9901sc.pdf.gz">Download</a> (gzipped PDF, 156KB)</p>

<hr>

<a name="dp9902"></a><h3>99/02: Evolving connectionist systems for on-line, knowledge-based learning: Principles and applications</h3>
<h4>N. Kasabov</h4>

<p>The paper introduces evolving connectionist systems (ECOS) as an effective approach to building on-line, adaptive intelligent systems. ECOS evolve through incremental, hybrid (supervised/unsupervised), on-line learning. They can accommodate new input data, including new features, new classes, etc. through local element tuning. New connections and new neurons are created during the operation of the system. The ECOS framework is presented and illustrated on a particular type of evolving neural networks&#8212;evolving fuzzy neural networks (EFuNNs). EFuNNs can learn spatial-temporal sequences in an adaptive way, through one pass learning. Rules can be inserted and extracted at any time of the system operation. The characteristics of ECOS and EFuNNs are illustrated on several case studies that include: adaptive pattern classification; adaptive, phoneme-based spoken language recognition; adaptive dynamic time-series prediction; intelligent agents.</p>

<p><strong>Keywords: </strong>evolving connectionist systems,
evolving fuzzy neural networks,
on-line learning,
spatial-temporal adaptation,
adaptive speech recognition</p>

<p><a href="papers/dp9902nk.pdf.gz">Download</a> (gzipped PDF, 800KB)</p>

<hr>

<a name="dp9903"></a><h3>99/03: Spatial-temporal adaptation in evolving fuzzy neural networks for on-line adaptive phoneme recognition</h3>
<h4>N. Kasabov and M. Watts</h4>

<p><a href="papers/dp9903nk.pdf.gz">Download</a> (gzipped PDF, 438KB)</p>

<hr>

<a name="dp9904"></a><h3>99/04: Dynamic evolving fuzzy neural networks with &#8216;m-out-of-n&#8217; activation nodes for on-line adaptive systems</h3>
<h4>N. Kasabov and Q. Song</h4>

<p><strong>Keywords: </strong>dynamic evolving fuzzy neural networks,
on-line learning,
adaptive control,
dynamic time series prediction,
fuzzy clustering</p>

<p><a href="papers/dp9904nk.pdf.gz">Download</a> (gzipped PDF, 1.5MB)</p>

<hr>

<a name="dp9905"></a><h3>99/05: Hybrid neuro-fuzzy inference systems and their application for on-line adaptive learning of nonlinear dynamical systems</h3>
<h4>J. Kim and N. Kasabov</h4>

<p><strong>Keywords: </strong>neuro-fuzzy systems,
neural networks,
fuzzy logic,
parameter and structure learning,
knowledge acquisition,
adaptation,
time series</p>

<hr>

<a name="dp9906"></a><h3>99/06: A distributed architecture for environmental information systems</h3>
<h4>M.K. Purvis, S. Cranefield and M. Nowostawski</h4>

<p><a href="papers/dp9906mp.pdf.gz">Download</a> (gzipped PDF, 156Kb)</p>

<hr>

<a name="dp9907"></a><h3>99/07: From hybrid adjustable neuro-fuzzy systems to adaptive connectionist-based systems for phoneme and word recognition</h3>
<h4>N. Kasabov, R. Kilgour and S. Sinclair</h4>

<p><strong>Keywords: </strong>pattern recognition,
artificial intelligence,
neural networks,
speech recognition</p>

<hr>

<a name="dp9908"></a><h3>99/08: Adaptive, evolving, hybrid connectionist systems for image pattern recognition</h3>
<h4>N. Kasabov, S. Israel and B. Woodford</h4>

<p>The chapter presents a new methodology for building adaptive, incremental learning systems for image pattern classification. The systems are based on dynamically evolving fuzzy neural networks that are neural architectures to realise connectionist learning, fuzzy logic inference, and case-based reasoning. The methodology and the architecture are applied on two sets of real data&#8212;one of satellite image data, and the other of fruit image data. The proposed method and architecture encourage fast learning, life-long learning and on-line learning when the system operates in a changing environment of image data.</p>

<p><strong>Keywords: </strong>image classification,
evolving fuzzy neural networks,
case-based reasoning</p>

<p><a href="papers/dp9908nk.pdf.gz">Download</a> (gzipped PDF, 1.2MB)</p>

<hr>

<a name="dp9909"></a><h3>99/09: The concepts of hidden Markov model in speech recognition</h3>
<h4>W. Abdulla and N. Kasabov</h4>

<p><a href="papers/dp9909wa.pdf.gz">Download</a> (gzipped PDF, 489KB)</p>

<hr>

<a name="dp9910"></a><h3>99/10: Finding medical information on the Internet: Who should do it and what should they know</h3>
<h4>D. Parry</h4>

<p>More and more medical information is appearing on the Internet, but it is not easy to get at the nuggets amongst all the spoil. Bruce McKenzie&#8217;s editorial in the December 1997 edition of <EM>SIM Quarterly</EM> dealt very well with the problems of quality, but I would suggest that the problem of accessibility is as much of a challenge. As ever-greater quantities of high quality medical information are published electronically, the need to be able to find it becomes imperative. There are a number of tools to find what you want on the Internet&#8212;search engines, agents, indexing and classification schemes and hyperlinks, but their use requires care, skill and experience.</p>

<p><a href="papers/dp9910dp.pdf.gz">Download</a> (gzipped PDF, 142KB)</p>

<hr>

<a name="dp9911"></a><h3>99/11: Software metrics data analysis&#8212;Exploring the relative performance of some commonly used modeling techniques</h3>
<h4>A. Gray and S. MacDonell</h4>

<p>Whilst some software measurement research has been unquestionably successful, other research has struggled to enable expected advances in project and process management. Contributing to this lack of advancement has been the incidence of inappropriate or non-optimal application of various model-building procedures. This obviously raises questions over the validity and reliability of any results obtained as well as the conclusions that may have been drawn regarding the appropriateness of the techniques in question. In this paper we investigate the influence of various data set characteristics and the purpose of analysis on the effectiveness of four model-building techniques&#8212;three statistical methods and one neural network method. In order to illustrate the impact of data set characteristics, three separate data sets, drawn from the literature, are used in this analysis. In terms of predictive accuracy, it is shown that no one modeling method is best in every case. Some consideration of the characteristics of data sets should therefore occur before analysis begins, so that the most appropriate modeling method is then used. Moreover, issues other than predictive accuracy may have a significant influence on the selection of model-building methods. These issues are also addressed here and a series of guidelines for selecting among and implementing these and other modeling techniques is discussed.</p>

<p><strong>Keywords: </strong>software metrics,
analysis,
statistical methods,
connectionist methods</p>

<p><a href="papers/dp9911ag.pdf.gz">Download</a> (gzipped PDF, 219KB)</p>

<hr>

<a name="dp9912"></a><h3>99/12: Software forensics for discriminating between program authors using case-based reasoning, feed-forward neural networks and multiple discriminant analysis</h3>
<h4>S. MacDonell, A. Gray, G. MacLennan and P. Sallis</h4>

<p><a href="papers/dp9912sm.pdf.gz">Download</a> (gzipped PDF, 123KB)</p>

<hr>

<a name="dp9913"></a><h3>99/13: FULSOME: Fuzzy logic for software metric practitioners and researchers</h3>
<h4>S. MacDonell, A. Gray and J. Calvert</h4>

<p>There has been increasing interest in recent times for using fuzzy logic techniques to represent software metric models, especially those predicting development effort. The use of fuzzy logic for this application area offers several advantages when compared to other commonly used techniques. These include the use of a single model with different levels of precision for inputs and outputs used throughout the development life cycle, the possibility of model development with little or no data, and its effectiveness when used as a communication tool. The use of fuzzy logic in any applied field however requires that suitable tools are available for both practitioners and researchers&#8212;satisfying both interface and functionality related requirements. After outlining some of the specific needs of the software metrics community, including results from a survey of software developers on this topic, the paper describes the use of a set of tools called FULSOME (Fuzzy Logic for Software Metrics). The development of a simple fuzzy logic system by a software metrician and subsequent tuning are then discussed using a real-world set of software metric data. The automatically generated fuzzy model performs acceptably when compared to regression-based models.</p>

<p><a href="papers/dp9913sm.pdf.gz">Download</a> (gzipped PDF, 201KB)</p>

<hr>

<a name="dp9914"></a><h3>99/14: Assessing prediction systems</h3>
<h4>B. Kitchenham, S. MacDonell, L. Pickard and M. Shepperd</h4>

<p><strong>Keywords: </strong>prediction systems,
estimation,
empirical analysis,
metrics,
goodness-of-fit statistics</p>

<p><a href="papers/dp9914bk.pdf.gz">Download</a> (gzipped PDF, 239KB)</p>

<hr>

<h3><a name="dp9915">99/15: Industry practices in project management for
multimedia information systems</a></h3>
<h4>S. MacDonell and T. Fletcher</h4>

<p><a href="papers/dp9915sm.pdf.gz">Download</a> (gzipped PDF, 167KB)</p>

<hr>

<a name="dp9916"></a><h3>99/16: Factors systematically associated with errors in subjective estimates of software development effort: The stability of expert judgment</h3>
<h4>A. Gray, S. MacDonell and M. Shepperd</h4>

<p><a href="papers/dp9916ag.pdf.gz">Download</a> (gzipped PDF, 199KB)</p>

<hr>

<a name="dp9917"></a><h3>99/17: The NZDIS project: An agent-based distributed information systems architecture</h3>
<h4>M.K. Purvis, S. Cranefield, G. Bush, D. Carter, B. McKinlay, M. Nowostawski and R. Ward</h4>

<p>Novel features of this system include the use of standards from the object-oriented community such as the Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA) (as a communications infrastructure), the Unified Modeling Language (used as an ontology representation language), the Object Data Management Group&#8217;s Object Query Language (used for queries) and the Object Management Group&#8217;s Meta Object Facility (used as the basis for an ontology repository agent). Query results need not be returned within an ACL message, but may instead be represented by a CORBA object reference which may be used to obtain the result set.</p>

<p><a href="papers/dp9917mp.pdf.gz">Download</a> (gzipped PDF, 171KB)</p>

<hr>

<a name="dp9918"></a><h3>99/18: HTN planning for information processing tasks</h3>
<h4>S. Cranefield</h4>

<p>This paper discusses the problem of integrated planning and execution for tasks that involve the consumption, production and alteration of relational information. Unlike information retrieval problems, the information processing domain requires explicit modelling of the changing information state of the domain and how the validity of resources changes as actions are performed. A solution to this problem is presented in the form of a specialised hierarchical task network planning model. A distinction is made between the information processing effects of an action (modelled in terms of constraints relating the domain information before and after the action) and the actions&#8217; preconditions and effects which are expressed in terms of required, produced and invalidated resources. The information flow between tasks is explicitly represented in methods and plans, including any required information-combining operations such as selection and union.</p>

<p>The paper presents the semantics of this model and discusses implementation issues arising from the extension of an existing HTN planner (SHOP) to support this model of planning.</p>

<p><strong>Keywords: </strong>HTN planning,
information processing,
integrated planning and execution</p>

<p><a href="papers/dp9918sc.pdf.gz">Download</a> (gzipped PDF, 147KB)</p>

<hr>

<a name="dp9919"></a><h3>99/19: Automated scoring of practical tests in an introductory course in information technology</h3>
<h4>G. Kennedy</h4>

<p>In an introductory course in information technology at the University of Otago the acquisition of practical skills is considered to be a prime objective. An effective way of assessing the achievement of this objective is by means of a &#8216;practical test&#8217;, in which students are required to accomplish simple tasks in a controlled environment. The assessment of such work demands a high level of expertise, is very labour intensive and can suffer from marker inconsistency, particularly with large candidatures.</p>

<p>It was concluded that the approach was useful, and once properly validated gave rise to considerable savings in the time and effort.</p>

<p><strong>Keywords: </strong>computer-aided learning,
automated scoring,
computer education,
test validation</p>

<p><a href="papers/dp9919gk.pdf.gz">Download</a> (gzipped PDF, 138KB)</p>

<hr>

<a name="dp9920"></a><h3>99/20: Fuzzy logic for software metric models throughout the development life-cycle</h3>
<h4>A. Gray and S. MacDonell</h4>

<p>One problem faced by managers who are using project management models is the elicitation of numerical inputs. Obtaining these with any degree of confidence early in a project is not always feasible. Related to this difficulty is the risk of precisely specified outputs from models leading to overcommitment. These problems can be seen as the collective failure of software measurements to represent the inherent uncertainties in managers&#8217; knowledge of the development products, resources, and processes. It is proposed that fuzzy logic techniques can help to overcome some of these difficulties by representing the imprecision in inputs and outputs, as well as providing a more expert-knowledge based approach to model building. The use of fuzzy logic for project management however should not be the same throughout the development life cycle. Different levels of available information and desired precision suggest that it can be used differently depending on the current phase, although a single model can be used for consistency.</p>

<p><a href="papers/dp9920ag.pdf.gz">Download</a> (gzipped PDF, 120KB)</p>

<hr>

<a name="dp9921"></a><h3>99/21: Wayfinding/navigation within a QTVR virtual environment: Preliminary results</h3>
<h4>B. Norris, D. Rashid and W. Wong</h4>

<p><strong>Keywords: </strong>wayfinding,
navigation,
QTVR,
virtual environments,
activity theory</p>

<hr>

<a name="dp9922"></a><h3>99/22: Predictive modelling of plankton dynamics in freshwater lakes using genetic programming</h3>
<h4>P. Whigham and F. Recknagel</h4>

<p><a href="papers/dp9922pw.pdf.gz">Download</a> (gzipped PDF, 234KB)</p>

<hr>

<a name="dp9923"></a><h3>99/23: Modifications to Smith&#8217;s method for deriving normalised relations from a functional dependency diagram</h3>
<h4>N. Stanger</h4>

<p>Smith&#8217;s method (Smith, 1995) is a formal technique for deriving a set of normalised relations from a functional dependency diagram (FDD). Smith&#8217;s original rules for deriving these relations are incomplete, as they do not fully address the issue of determining the foreign key links between relations. In addition, one of the rules for deriving foreign keys can produce incorrect results, while the other rule is difficult to automate. In this paper are described solutions these issues.</p>

<p><a href="papers/dp9923ns.pdf.gz">Download</a> (gzipped PDF, 158KB)</p>

<hr>

<a name="dp9924"></a><h3>99/24: The development of an electronic distance learning course in health informatics</h3>
<h4>D. Parry, S. Cockcroft, A. Breton, D. Abernethy and J. Gillies</h4>

<p><a href="papers/dp9924dp.pdf.gz">Download</a> (gzipped PDF, 484KB)</p>

<hr>

<a name="dp9925"></a><h3>99/25: Infiltrating IT into primary care: A case study</h3>
<h4>S. Cockcroft, D. Parry, A. Breton, D. Abernethy and J. Gillies</h4>

<p><a href="papers/dp9925so.pdf.gz">Download</a> (gzipped PDF, 72KB)</p>

<hr>

<a name="dp9926"></a><h3>99/26: Using rough sets to study expert behaviour in induction of labour</h3>
<h4>D. Parry, W.K. Yeap and N. Pattison</h4>

<p><strong>Keywords: </strong>rough sets,
obstetrics,
knowledge acquisition</p>

<p><a href="papers/dp9926dp.pdf.gz">Download</a> (gzipped PDF, 78KB)</p>

<hr>

<a name="dp9927"></a><h3>99/27: Using the Internet to teach health informatics</h3>
<h4>D. Parry, A. Breton, D. Abernethy, S. Cockcroft and J. Gillies</h4>

<p>Since July 1998 we have been teaching an Internet-based distance learning course in health informatics (<a href="http://basil.otago.ac.nz:800">http://basil.otago.ac.nz:800</a>). The development of this course and the experiences we have had running it are described in this paper. The course was delivered using paper materials, a face-to-face workshop, a CD-ROM and Internet communication tools. We currently have about 30 students around New Zealand, a mixture of physicians, nurses and other health staff. Some teaching methods have worked, some haven&#8217;t, but in the process we have learned a number of valuable lessons.</p>

<p><strong>Keywords: </strong>distance learning,
healthcare,
Internet,
CD-ROM</p>

<p><a href="papers/dp9927dp.pdf.gz">Download</a> (gzipped PDF, 69KB)</p>

Ignore Space Show notes View Website/dps1997-include.htm
<p><strong>97/01:</strong> S. J. S. Cranefield and A. Diaz and M. K. Purvis. <em>Planning and matchmaking for the interoperation of information processing agents.</em> <a href="dp1997-abstracts.htm#dp1997-01">Abstract</a> \| <a href="papers/dp1997-01.pdf">Download</a> (84 KB)</p> <p><strong>97/02:</strong> S. Mann and G. L. Benwell and W. G. Lee. <em>Landscape structure and ecosystem conservation: An assessment using remote sensing.</em> <a href="dp1997-abstracts.htm#dp1997-02">Abstract</a> \| <a href="papers/dp1997-02.pdf">Download</a> (108 KB)</p> <p><strong>97/03:</strong> B. E. Norris and W. B. L. Wong. <em>Supporting task performance: Is text or video better?.</em> <a href="dp1997-abstracts.htm#dp1997-03">Abstract</a> \| <a href="papers/dp1997-03.pdf">Download</a> (44 KB)</p> <p><strong>97/04:</strong> W. B. L. Wong and P. J. Sallis and D. P. O’Hare. <em>Eliciting information portrayal requirements: Experiences with the critical decision method.</em> <a href="dp1997-abstracts.htm#dp1997-04">Abstract</a> \| <a href="papers/dp1997-04.pdf">Download</a> (100 KB)</p> <p><strong>97/05:</strong> S. K. S. Cockcroft. <em>A taxonomy of spatial data integrity constraints.</em> <a href="dp1997-abstracts.htm#dp1997-05">Abstract</a> \| <a href="papers/dp1997-05.pdf">Download</a> (128 KB)</p> <p><strong>97/06:</strong> A. Diaz and S. J. S. Cranefield and M. K. Purvis. <em>Planning and matchmaking in a multi-agent system for software integration.</em> <a href="dp1997-abstracts.htm#dp1997-06">Abstract</a> \| <a href="papers/dp1997-06.pdf">Download</a> (72 KB)</p> <p><strong>97/07:</strong> N. J. Stanger and R. T. Pascoe. <em>Environments for viewpoint representations.</em> <a href="dp1997-abstracts.htm#dp1997-07">Abstract</a> \| <a href="papers/dp1997-07.pdf">Download</a> (232 KB)</p> <p><strong>97/08:</strong> N. J. Stanger and R. T. Pascoe. <em>Exploiting the advantages of object-oriented programming in the implementation of a database design environment.</em> <a href="dp1997-abstracts.htm#dp1997-08">Abstract</a> \| <a href="papers/dp1997-08.pdf">Download</a> (108 KB)</p> <p><strong>97/09:</strong> H. B. Wolfe. <em>Privacy enhancing technology.</em> <a href="dp1997-abstracts.htm#dp1997-09">Abstract</a></p> <p><strong>97/10:</strong> A. R. Gray and S. G. MacDonell. <em>Applications of fuzzy logic to software metric models for development effort estimation.</em> <a href="dp1997-abstracts.htm#dp1997-10">Abstract</a> \| <a href="papers/dp1997-10.pdf">Download</a> (88 KB)</p> <p><strong>97/11:</strong> P. J. Sallis and D. A. Kassabova. <em>Usenet newsgroups’ profile analysis utilising standard and non-standard statistical methods.</em> <a href="dp1997-abstracts.htm#dp1997-11">Abstract</a></p> <p><strong>97/12:</strong> W. B. L. Wong. <em>The ecological approach to interface design in intentional domains.</em> <a href="papers/dp1997-12.pdf">Download</a> (60 KB)</p> <p><strong>97/13:</strong> P. J. Sallis and D. A. Kassabova. <em>Computer-mediated communication: Experiments with e-mail readability.</em> </p> <p><strong>97/14:</strong> A. R. Gray and P. J. Sallis and S. G. MacDonell. <em>Software forensics: Extending authorship analysis techniques to computer programs.</em> <a href="dp1997-abstracts.htm#dp1997-14">Abstract</a></p> <p><strong>97/15:</strong> Q. Zhou and M. K. Purvis and N. K. Kasabov. <em>A membership function selection method for fuzzy neural networks.</em> <a href="dp1997-abstracts.htm#dp1997-15">Abstract</a> \| <a href="papers/dp1997-15.pdf">Download</a> (172 KB)</p> <p><strong>97/01:</strong> S.J.S. Cranefield, A. Diaz and M.K. Purvis. <em>Planning and matchmaking for the interoperation of information processing agents.</em> <a href="dp1997-abstracts.htm#dp9701">Abstract</a> \| <a href="papers/dp9701sc.pdf.gz">Download</a> (71KB)</p> <p><strong>97/02:</strong> S. Mann, G.L. Benwell and W.G. Lee. <em>Landscape structure and ecosystem conservation: An assessment using remote sensing.</em> <a href="dp1997-abstracts.htm#dp9702">Abstract</a> \| <a href="papers/dp9702sa.pdf.gz">Download</a> (97KB)</p> <p><strong>97/03:</strong> B.E. Norris and W.B.L. Wong. <em>Supporting task performance: Is text or video better?</em> <a href="dp1997-abstracts.htm#dp9703">Abstract</a> \| <a href="papers/dp9703ww.pdf.gz">Download</a> (32KB)</p> <p><strong>97/04:</strong> W.B.L. Wong, P.J. Sallis and D.P. O’Hare. <em>Eliciting information portrayal requirements: Experiences with the critical decision method.</em> <a href="dp1997-abstracts.htm#dp9704">Abstract</a> \| <a href="papers/dp9704ww.pdf.gz">Download</a> (86KB)</p> <p><strong>97/05:</strong> S.K.S. Cockcroft. <em>A taxonomy of spatial data integrity constraints.</em> <a href="dp1997-abstracts.htm#dp9705">Abstract</a> \| <a href="papers/dp9705so.pdf.gz">Download</a> (112KB)</p> <p><strong>97/06:</strong> A. Diaz, S.J.S. Cranefield and M.K. Purvis. <em>Planning and matchmaking in a multi-agent system for software integration.</em> <a href="dp1997-abstracts.htm#dp9706">Abstract</a> \| <a href="papers/dp9706sc.pdf.gz">Download</a> (65KB)</p> <p><strong>97/07:</strong> N.J. Stanger and R.T. Pascoe. <em>Environments for viewpoint representations.</em> <a href="dp1997-abstracts.htm#dp9707">Abstract</a> \| <a href="papers/dp9707ns.pdf.gz">Download</a> (164KB)</p> <p><strong>97/08:</strong> N.J. Stanger and R.T. Pascoe. <em>Exploiting the advantages of object-oriented programming in the implementation of a database design environment.</em> <a href="dp1997-abstracts.htm#dp9708">Abstract</a> \| <a href="papers/dp9708ns.pdf.gz">Download</a> (95KB)</p> <p><strong>97/09:</strong> H.B. Wolfe. <em>Privacy enhancing technology.</em> <a href="dp1997-abstracts.htm#dp9709">Abstract</a> </p> <p><strong>97/10:</strong> A.R. Gray and S.G. MacDonell. <em>Applications of fuzzy logic to software metric models for development effort estimation.</em> <a href="dp1997-abstracts.htm#dp9710">Abstract</a> \| <a href="papers/dp9710sm.pdf.gz">Download</a> (79KB)</p> <p><strong>97/11:</strong> P.J. Sallis and D.A. Kassabova. <em>Usenet newsgroups’ profile analysis utilising standard and non-standard statistical methods.</em> <a href="dp1997-abstracts.htm#dp9711">Abstract</a> </p> <p><strong>97/12:</strong> W.B.L. Wong. <em>The ecological approach to interface design in intentional domains.</em> <a href="dp1997-abstracts.htm#dp9712">Abstract</a> \| <a href="papers/dp9712ww.pdf.gz">Download</a> (47KB)</p> <p><strong>97/13:</strong> P.J. Sallis and D.A. Kassabova. <em>Computer-mediated communication: Experiments with e-mail readability.</em> <a href="dp1997-abstracts.htm#dp9713">Abstract</a> </p> <p><strong>97/14:</strong> A.R. Gray, P.J. Sallis and S.G. MacDonell. <em>Software forensics: Extending authorship analysis techniques to computer programs.</em> <a href="dp1997-abstracts.htm#dp9714">Abstract</a> </p> <p><strong>97/15:</strong> Q. Zhou, M.K. Purvis and N.K. Kasabov. <em>A membership function selection method for fuzzy neural networks.</em> <a href="dp1997-abstracts.htm#dp9715">Abstract</a> \| <a href="papers/dp9715mp.pdf.gz">Download</a> (129KB)</p>

Ignore Space Show notes View

Website/dps1997-include.htm

<p><strong>97/01:</strong> S. J. S. Cranefield and A. Diaz and M. K. Purvis. <em>Planning and matchmaking for the interoperation of information processing agents.</em> <a href="dp1997-abstracts.htm#dp1997-01">Abstract</a> |  <a href="papers/dp1997-01.pdf">Download</a> (84 KB)</p>

<p><strong>97/02:</strong> S. Mann and G. L. Benwell and W. G. Lee. <em>Landscape structure and ecosystem conservation: An assessment using remote sensing.</em> <a href="dp1997-abstracts.htm#dp1997-02">Abstract</a> |  <a href="papers/dp1997-02.pdf">Download</a> (108 KB)</p>

<p><strong>97/03:</strong> B. E. Norris and W. B. L. Wong. <em>Supporting task performance: Is text or video better?.</em> <a href="dp1997-abstracts.htm#dp1997-03">Abstract</a> |  <a href="papers/dp1997-03.pdf">Download</a> (44 KB)</p>

<p><strong>97/04:</strong> W. B. L. Wong and P. J. Sallis and D. P. O&rsquo;Hare. <em>Eliciting information portrayal requirements: Experiences with the critical decision method.</em> <a href="dp1997-abstracts.htm#dp1997-04">Abstract</a> |  <a href="papers/dp1997-04.pdf">Download</a> (100 KB)</p>

<p><strong>97/05:</strong> S. K. S. Cockcroft. <em>A taxonomy of spatial data integrity constraints.</em> <a href="dp1997-abstracts.htm#dp1997-05">Abstract</a> |  <a href="papers/dp1997-05.pdf">Download</a> (128 KB)</p>

<p><strong>97/06:</strong> A. Diaz and S. J. S. Cranefield and M. K. Purvis. <em>Planning and matchmaking in a multi-agent system for software integration.</em> <a href="dp1997-abstracts.htm#dp1997-06">Abstract</a> |  <a href="papers/dp1997-06.pdf">Download</a> (72 KB)</p>

<p><strong>97/07:</strong> N. J. Stanger and R. T. Pascoe. <em>Environments for viewpoint representations.</em> <a href="dp1997-abstracts.htm#dp1997-07">Abstract</a> |  <a href="papers/dp1997-07.pdf">Download</a> (232 KB)</p>

<p><strong>97/08:</strong> N. J. Stanger and R. T. Pascoe. <em>Exploiting the advantages of object-oriented programming in the implementation of a database design environment.</em> <a href="dp1997-abstracts.htm#dp1997-08">Abstract</a> |  <a href="papers/dp1997-08.pdf">Download</a> (108 KB)</p>

<p><strong>97/09:</strong> H. B. Wolfe. <em>Privacy enhancing technology.</em> <a href="dp1997-abstracts.htm#dp1997-09">Abstract</a></p>

<p><strong>97/10:</strong> A. R. Gray and S. G. MacDonell. <em>Applications of fuzzy logic to software metric models for development effort estimation.</em> <a href="dp1997-abstracts.htm#dp1997-10">Abstract</a> |  <a href="papers/dp1997-10.pdf">Download</a> (88 KB)</p>

<p><strong>97/11:</strong> P. J. Sallis and D. A. Kassabova. <em>Usenet newsgroups&rsquo; profile analysis utilising standard and non-standard statistical methods.</em> <a href="dp1997-abstracts.htm#dp1997-11">Abstract</a></p>

<p><strong>97/12:</strong> W. B. L. Wong. <em>The ecological approach to interface design in intentional domains.</em>  <a href="papers/dp1997-12.pdf">Download</a> (60 KB)</p>

<p><strong>97/13:</strong> P. J. Sallis and D. A. Kassabova. <em>Computer-mediated communication: Experiments with e-mail readability.</em> </p>

<p><strong>97/14:</strong> A. R. Gray and P. J. Sallis and S. G. MacDonell. <em>Software forensics: Extending authorship analysis techniques to computer programs.</em> <a href="dp1997-abstracts.htm#dp1997-14">Abstract</a></p>

<p><strong>97/15:</strong> Q. Zhou and M. K. Purvis and N. K. Kasabov. <em>A membership function selection method for fuzzy neural networks.</em> <a href="dp1997-abstracts.htm#dp1997-15">Abstract</a> |  <a href="papers/dp1997-15.pdf">Download</a> (172 KB)</p>

<p><strong>97/01:</strong> S.J.S. Cranefield, A. Diaz and M.K. Purvis. <em>Planning and matchmaking for the interoperation of information processing agents.</em> <a href="dp1997-abstracts.htm#dp9701">Abstract</a> | <a href="papers/dp9701sc.pdf.gz">Download</a> (71KB)</p>

<p><strong>97/02:</strong> S. Mann, G.L. Benwell and W.G. Lee. <em>Landscape structure and ecosystem conservation: An assessment using remote sensing.</em> <a href="dp1997-abstracts.htm#dp9702">Abstract</a> | <a href="papers/dp9702sa.pdf.gz">Download</a> (97KB)</p>

<p><strong>97/03:</strong> B.E. Norris and W.B.L. Wong. <em>Supporting task performance: Is text or video better?</em> <a href="dp1997-abstracts.htm#dp9703">Abstract</a> | <a href="papers/dp9703ww.pdf.gz">Download</a> (32KB)</p>

<p><strong>97/04:</strong> W.B.L. Wong, P.J. Sallis and D.P. O&#8217;Hare. <em>Eliciting information portrayal requirements: Experiences with the critical decision method.</em> <a href="dp1997-abstracts.htm#dp9704">Abstract</a> | <a href="papers/dp9704ww.pdf.gz">Download</a> (86KB)</p>

<p><strong>97/05:</strong> S.K.S. Cockcroft. <em>A taxonomy of spatial data integrity constraints.</em> <a href="dp1997-abstracts.htm#dp9705">Abstract</a> | <a href="papers/dp9705so.pdf.gz">Download</a> (112KB)</p>

<p><strong>97/06:</strong> A. Diaz, S.J.S. Cranefield and M.K. Purvis. <em>Planning and matchmaking in a multi-agent system for software integration.</em> <a href="dp1997-abstracts.htm#dp9706">Abstract</a> | <a href="papers/dp9706sc.pdf.gz">Download</a> (65KB)</p>

<p><strong>97/07:</strong> N.J. Stanger and R.T. Pascoe. <em>Environments for viewpoint representations.</em> <a href="dp1997-abstracts.htm#dp9707">Abstract</a> | <a href="papers/dp9707ns.pdf.gz">Download</a> (164KB)</p>

<p><strong>97/08:</strong> N.J. Stanger and R.T. Pascoe. <em>Exploiting the advantages of object-oriented programming in the implementation of a database design environment.</em> <a href="dp1997-abstracts.htm#dp9708">Abstract</a> | <a href="papers/dp9708ns.pdf.gz">Download</a> (95KB)</p>

<p><strong>97/09:</strong> H.B. Wolfe. <em>Privacy enhancing technology.</em> <a href="dp1997-abstracts.htm#dp9709">Abstract</a> </p>

<p><strong>97/10:</strong> A.R. Gray and S.G. MacDonell. <em>Applications of fuzzy logic to software metric models for development effort estimation.</em> <a href="dp1997-abstracts.htm#dp9710">Abstract</a> | <a href="papers/dp9710sm.pdf.gz">Download</a> (79KB)</p>

<p><strong>97/11:</strong> P.J. Sallis and D.A. Kassabova. <em>Usenet newsgroups&#8217; profile analysis utilising standard and non-standard statistical methods.</em> <a href="dp1997-abstracts.htm#dp9711">Abstract</a> </p>

<p><strong>97/12:</strong> W.B.L. Wong. <em>The ecological approach to interface design in intentional domains.</em> <a href="dp1997-abstracts.htm#dp9712">Abstract</a> | <a href="papers/dp9712ww.pdf.gz">Download</a> (47KB)</p>

<p><strong>97/13:</strong> P.J. Sallis and D.A. Kassabova. <em>Computer-mediated communication: Experiments with e-mail readability.</em> <a href="dp1997-abstracts.htm#dp9713">Abstract</a> </p>

<p><strong>97/14:</strong> A.R. Gray, P.J. Sallis and S.G. MacDonell. <em>Software forensics: Extending authorship analysis techniques to computer programs.</em> <a href="dp1997-abstracts.htm#dp9714">Abstract</a> </p>

<p><strong>97/15:</strong> Q. Zhou, M.K. Purvis and N.K. Kasabov. <em>A membership function selection method for fuzzy neural networks.</em> <a href="dp1997-abstracts.htm#dp9715">Abstract</a> | <a href="papers/dp9715mp.pdf.gz">Download</a> (129KB)</p>

Ignore Space Show notes View Website/dps1998-include.htm
<p><strong>98/01:</strong> S. Cockcroft. <em>User defined spatial business rules: Storage, management and implementation—A pipe network case study.</em> <a href="dp1998-abstracts.htm#dp1998-01">Abstract</a></p> <p><strong>98/02:</strong> H. B. Wolfe. <em>Electronic security.</em> <a href="dp1998-abstracts.htm#dp1998-02">Abstract</a></p> <p><strong>98/03:</strong> N. Kasabov. <em>Looking for a new AI paradigm: Evolving connectionist and fuzzy connectionist systems—Theory and applications for adaptive, on-line intelligent systems.</em> <a href="dp1998-abstracts.htm#dp1998-03">Abstract</a></p> <p><strong>98/04:</strong> J. Kim and N. Kasabov and A. Mowat and P. Poole. <em>Connectionist methods for classification of fruit populations based on visible-near infrared spectrophotometry data.</em> <a href="dp1998-abstracts.htm#dp1998-04">Abstract</a></p> <p><strong>98/05:</strong> J. Kim and R. Kozma and N. Kasabov and B. Gols and M. Geerink and T. Cohen. <em>A fuzzy neural network model for the estimation of the feeding rate to an anaerobic waste water treatment process.</em> <a href="dp1998-abstracts.htm#dp1998-05">Abstract</a></p> <p><strong>98/06:</strong> E. Parry and D. Parry and N. Pattison. <em>Induction of labour for post term pregnancy: An observational study.</em> <a href="dp1998-abstracts.htm#dp1998-06">Abstract</a></p> <p><strong>98/07:</strong> S. Cranefield and B. McKinlay and E. Moreale and M. K. Purvis. <em>Automating information processing tasks: An agent-based architecture.</em> <a href="dp1998-abstracts.htm#dp1998-07">Abstract</a> \| <a href="papers/dp1998-07.pdf">Download</a> (172 KB)</p> <p><strong>98/08:</strong> A. Holt and S. MacDonell and G. Benwell. <em>Spatial isomorphism.</em> <a href="dp1998-abstracts.htm#dp1998-08">Abstract</a> \| <a href="papers/dp1998-08.pdf">Download</a> (456 KB)</p> <p><strong>98/09:</strong> A. Marr and R. Pascoe and G. Benwell and S. Mann. <em>Development of a generic system for modelling spatial processes.</em> <a href="dp1998-abstracts.htm#dp1998-09">Abstract</a> \| <a href="papers/dp1998-09.pdf">Download</a> (644 KB)</p> <p><strong>98/10:</strong> M. K. Purvis and N. Kasabov and G. Benwell and Q. Zhou and F. Zhang. <em>Neuro-fuzzy methods for environmental modelling.</em> <a href="dp1998-abstracts.htm#dp1998-10">Abstract</a> \| <a href="papers/dp1998-10.pdf">Download</a> (384 KB)</p> <p><strong>98/01:</strong> S. Cockcroft. <em>User defined spatial business rules: Storage, management and implementation—A pipe network case study.</em> <a href="dp1998-abstracts.htm#dp9801">Abstract</a> </p> <p><strong>98/02:</strong> H.B. Wolfe. <em>Electronic Security.</em> <a href="dp1998-abstracts.htm#dp9802">Abstract</a> </p> <p><strong>98/03:</strong> N. Kasabov. <em>Looking for a new AI paradigm: Evolving connectionist and fuzzy connectionist systems—Theory and applications for adaptive, on-line intelligent systems.</em> <a href="dp1998-abstracts.htm#dp9803">Abstract</a> </p> <p><strong>98/04:</strong> J. Kim, N. Kasabov, A. Mowat and P. Poole. <em>Connectionist methods for classification of fruit populations based on visible-near infrared spectrophotometry data.</em> <a href="dp1998-abstracts.htm#dp9804">Abstract</a> </p> <p><strong>98/05:</strong> J. Kim, R. Kozma, N. Kasabov, B. Gols, M. Geerink and T. Cohen. <em>A fuzzy neural network model for the estimation of the feeding rate to an anaerobic waste water treatment process.</em> <a href="dp1998-abstracts.htm#dp9805">Abstract</a> </p> <p><strong>98/06:</strong> E. Parry, D. Parry and N. Pattison. <em>Induction of labour for post term pregnancy: An observational study.</em> <a href="dp1998-abstracts.htm#dp9806">Abstract</a> </p> <p><strong>98/07:</strong> S. Cranefield, B. McKinlay, E. Moreale and M.K. Purvis. <em>Automating information processing tasks: An agent-based architecture.</em> <a href="dp1998-abstracts.htm#dp9807">Abstract</a> \| <a href="papers/dp9807sc.pdf.gz">Download</a> (128KB)</p> <p><strong>98/08:</strong> A. Holt, S. MacDonell and G. Benwell. <em>Spatial isomorphism.</em> <a href="dp1998-abstracts.htm#dp9808">Abstract</a> \| <a href="papers/dp9808ah.pdf.gz">Download</a> (358KB)</p> <p><strong>98/09:</strong> A. Marr, R. Pascoe, G. Benwell and S. Mann. <em>Development of a generic system for modelling spatial processes.</em> <a href="dp1998-abstracts.htm#dp9809">Abstract</a> \| <a href="papers/dp9809am.pdf.gz">Download</a> (511KB)</p> <p><strong>98/10:</strong> M.K. Purvis, N. Kasabov, G. Benwell, Q. Zhou and F. Zhang. <em>Neuro-fuzzy methods for environmental modelling.</em> <a href="dp1998-abstracts.htm#dp9810">Abstract</a> \| <a href="papers/dp9810mp.pdf.gz">Download</a> (346KB)</p>

Ignore Space Show notes View

Website/dps1998-include.htm

<p><strong>98/01:</strong> S. Cockcroft. <em>User defined spatial business rules: Storage, management and implementation&mdash;A pipe network case study.</em> <a href="dp1998-abstracts.htm#dp1998-01">Abstract</a></p>

<p><strong>98/02:</strong> H. B. Wolfe. <em>Electronic security.</em> <a href="dp1998-abstracts.htm#dp1998-02">Abstract</a></p>

<p><strong>98/03:</strong> N. Kasabov. <em>Looking for a new AI paradigm: Evolving connectionist and fuzzy connectionist systems&mdash;Theory and applications for adaptive, on-line intelligent systems.</em> <a href="dp1998-abstracts.htm#dp1998-03">Abstract</a></p>

<p><strong>98/04:</strong> J. Kim and N. Kasabov and A. Mowat and P. Poole. <em>Connectionist methods for classification of fruit populations based on visible-near infrared spectrophotometry data.</em> <a href="dp1998-abstracts.htm#dp1998-04">Abstract</a></p>

<p><strong>98/05:</strong> J. Kim and R. Kozma and N. Kasabov and B. Gols and M. Geerink and T. Cohen. <em>A fuzzy neural network model for the estimation of the feeding rate to an anaerobic waste water treatment process.</em> <a href="dp1998-abstracts.htm#dp1998-05">Abstract</a></p>

<p><strong>98/06:</strong> E. Parry and D. Parry and N. Pattison. <em>Induction of labour for post term pregnancy: An observational study.</em> <a href="dp1998-abstracts.htm#dp1998-06">Abstract</a></p>

<p><strong>98/07:</strong> S. Cranefield and B. McKinlay and E. Moreale and M. K. Purvis. <em>Automating information processing tasks: An agent-based architecture.</em> <a href="dp1998-abstracts.htm#dp1998-07">Abstract</a> |  <a href="papers/dp1998-07.pdf">Download</a> (172 KB)</p>

<p><strong>98/08:</strong> A. Holt and S. MacDonell and G. Benwell. <em>Spatial isomorphism.</em> <a href="dp1998-abstracts.htm#dp1998-08">Abstract</a> |  <a href="papers/dp1998-08.pdf">Download</a> (456 KB)</p>

<p><strong>98/09:</strong> A. Marr and R. Pascoe and G. Benwell and S. Mann. <em>Development of a generic system for modelling spatial processes.</em> <a href="dp1998-abstracts.htm#dp1998-09">Abstract</a> |  <a href="papers/dp1998-09.pdf">Download</a> (644 KB)</p>

<p><strong>98/10:</strong> M. K. Purvis and N. Kasabov and G. Benwell and Q. Zhou and F. Zhang. <em>Neuro-fuzzy methods for environmental modelling.</em> <a href="dp1998-abstracts.htm#dp1998-10">Abstract</a> |  <a href="papers/dp1998-10.pdf">Download</a> (384 KB)</p>

<p><strong>98/01:</strong> S. Cockcroft. <em>User defined spatial business rules: Storage, management and implementation&#8212;A pipe network case study.</em> <a href="dp1998-abstracts.htm#dp9801">Abstract</a> </p>

<p><strong>98/02:</strong> H.B. Wolfe. <em>Electronic Security.</em> <a href="dp1998-abstracts.htm#dp9802">Abstract</a> </p>

<p><strong>98/03:</strong> N. Kasabov. <em>Looking for a new AI paradigm: Evolving connectionist and fuzzy connectionist systems&#8212;Theory and applications for adaptive, on-line intelligent systems.</em> <a href="dp1998-abstracts.htm#dp9803">Abstract</a> </p>

<p><strong>98/04:</strong> J. Kim, N. Kasabov, A. Mowat and P. Poole. <em>Connectionist methods for classification of fruit populations based on visible-near infrared spectrophotometry data.</em> <a href="dp1998-abstracts.htm#dp9804">Abstract</a> </p>

<p><strong>98/05:</strong> J. Kim, R. Kozma, N. Kasabov, B. Gols, M. Geerink and T. Cohen. <em>A fuzzy neural network model for the estimation of the feeding rate to an anaerobic waste water treatment process.</em> <a href="dp1998-abstracts.htm#dp9805">Abstract</a> </p>

<p><strong>98/06:</strong> E. Parry, D. Parry and N. Pattison. <em>Induction of labour for post term pregnancy: An observational study.</em> <a href="dp1998-abstracts.htm#dp9806">Abstract</a> </p>

<p><strong>98/07:</strong> S. Cranefield, B. McKinlay, E. Moreale and M.K. Purvis. <em>Automating information processing tasks: An agent-based architecture.</em> <a href="dp1998-abstracts.htm#dp9807">Abstract</a> | <a href="papers/dp9807sc.pdf.gz">Download</a> (128KB)</p>

<p><strong>98/08:</strong> A. Holt, S. MacDonell and G. Benwell. <em>Spatial isomorphism.</em> <a href="dp1998-abstracts.htm#dp9808">Abstract</a> | <a href="papers/dp9808ah.pdf.gz">Download</a> (358KB)</p>

<p><strong>98/09:</strong> A. Marr, R. Pascoe, G. Benwell and S. Mann. <em>Development of a generic system for modelling spatial processes.</em> <a href="dp1998-abstracts.htm#dp9809">Abstract</a> | <a href="papers/dp9809am.pdf.gz">Download</a> (511KB)</p>

<p><strong>98/10:</strong> M.K. Purvis, N. Kasabov, G. Benwell, Q. Zhou and F. Zhang. <em>Neuro-fuzzy methods for environmental modelling.</em> <a href="dp1998-abstracts.htm#dp9810">Abstract</a> | <a href="papers/dp9810mp.pdf.gz">Download</a> (346KB)</p>

Ignore Space Show notes View Website/dps1999-include.htm
<p><strong>99/01:</strong> S. Cranefield and M. K. Purvis. <em>UML as an ontology modelling language.</em> <a href="dp1999-abstracts.htm#dp1999-01">Abstract</a> \| <a href="papers/dp1999-01.pdf">Download</a> (204 KB)</p> <p><strong>99/02:</strong> N. Kasabov. <em>Evolving connectionist systems for on-line, knowledge-based learning: Principles and applications.</em> <a href="dp1999-abstracts.htm#dp1999-02">Abstract</a> \| <a href="papers/dp1999-02.pdf">Download</a> (944 KB)</p> <p><strong>99/03:</strong> N. Kasabov and M. Watts. <em>Spatial-temporal adaptation in evolving fuzzy neural networks for on-line adaptive phoneme recognition.</em> <a href="dp1999-abstracts.htm#dp1999-03">Abstract</a> \| <a href="papers/dp1999-03.pdf">Download</a> (560 KB)</p> <p><strong>99/04:</strong> N. Kasabov and Q. Song. <em>Dynamic evolving fuzzy neural networks with ‘m-out-of-n’ activation nodes for on-line adaptive systems.</em> <a href="dp1999-abstracts.htm#dp1999-04">Abstract</a> \| <a href="papers/dp1999-04.pdf">Download</a> (2 MB)</p> <p><strong>99/05:</strong> J. Kim and N. Kasabov. <em>Hybrid neuro-fuzzy inference systems and their application for on-line adaptive learning of nonlinear dynamical systems.</em> <a href="dp1999-abstracts.htm#dp1999-05">Abstract</a></p> <p><strong>99/06:</strong> M. K. Purvis and S. Cranefield and M. Nowostawski. <em>A distributed architecture for environmental information systems.</em> <a href="dp1999-abstracts.htm#dp1999-06">Abstract</a> \| <a href="papers/dp1999-06.pdf">Download</a> (208 Kb)</p> <p><strong>99/07:</strong> N. Kasabov and R. Kilgour and S. Sinclair. <em>From hybrid adjustable neuro-fuzzy systems to adaptive connectionist-based systems for phoneme and word recognition.</em> <a href="dp1999-abstracts.htm#dp1999-07">Abstract</a></p> <p><strong>99/08:</strong> N. Kasabov and S. Israel and B. Woodford. <em>Adaptive, evolving, hybrid connectionist systems for image pattern recognition.</em> <a href="dp1999-abstracts.htm#dp1999-08">Abstract</a> \| <a href="papers/dp1999-08.pdf">Download</a> (1.3 MB)</p> <p><strong>99/09:</strong> W. Abdulla and N. Kasabov. <em>The concepts of hidden Markov model in speech recognition.</em> <a href="dp1999-abstracts.htm#dp1999-09">Abstract</a> \| <a href="papers/dp1999-09.pdf">Download</a> (556 KB)</p> <p><strong>99/10:</strong> D. Parry. <em>Finding medical information on the Internet: Who should do it and what should they know.</em> <a href="dp1999-abstracts.htm#dp1999-10">Abstract</a> \| <a href="papers/dp1999-10.pdf">Download</a> (196 KB)</p> <p><strong>99/11:</strong> A. Gray and S. MacDonell. <em>Software metrics data analysis—Exploring the relative performance of some commonly used modeling techniques.</em> <a href="dp1999-abstracts.htm#dp1999-11">Abstract</a> \| <a href="papers/dp1999-11.pdf">Download</a> (292 KB)</p> <p><strong>99/12:</strong> S. MacDonell and A. Gray and G. MacLennan and P. Sallis. <em>Software forensics for discriminating between program authors using case-based reasoning, feed-forward neural networks and multiple discriminant analysis.</em> <a href="dp1999-abstracts.htm#dp1999-12">Abstract</a> \| <a href="papers/dp1999-12.pdf">Download</a> (148 KB)</p> <p><strong>99/13:</strong> S. MacDonell and A. Gray and J. Calvert. <em>FULSOME: Fuzzy logic for software metric practitioners and researchers.</em> <a href="dp1999-abstracts.htm#dp1999-13">Abstract</a> \| <a href="papers/dp1999-13.pdf">Download</a> (236 KB)</p> <p><strong>99/14:</strong> B. Kitchenham and S. MacDonell and L. Pickard and M. Shepperd. <em>Assessing prediction systems.</em> <a href="dp1999-abstracts.htm#dp1999-14">Abstract</a> \| <a href="papers/dp1999-14.pdf">Download</a> (304 KB)</p> <p><strong>99/15:</strong> S. MacDonell and T. Fletcher. <em>Industry practices in project management for multimedia information systems.</em> <a href="dp1999-abstracts.htm#dp1999-15">Abstract</a> \| <a href="papers/dp1999-15.pdf">Download</a> (228 KB)</p> <p><strong>99/16:</strong> A. Gray and S. MacDonell and M. Shepperd. <em>Factors systematically associated with errors in subjective estimates of software development effort: The stability of expert judgment.</em> <a href="dp1999-abstracts.htm#dp1999-16">Abstract</a> \| <a href="papers/dp1999-16.pdf">Download</a> (236 KB)</p> <p><strong>99/17:</strong> M. K. Purvis and S. Cranefield and G. Bush and D. Carter and B. McKinlay and M. Nowostawski and R. Ward. <em>The NZDIS project: An agent-based distributed information systems architecture.</em> <a href="dp1999-abstracts.htm#dp1999-17">Abstract</a> \| <a href="papers/dp1999-17.pdf">Download</a> (212 KB)</p> <p><strong>99/18:</strong> S. Cranefield. <em>HTN planning for information processing tasks.</em> <a href="dp1999-abstracts.htm#dp1999-18">Abstract</a> \| <a href="papers/dp1999-18.pdf">Download</a> (188 KB)</p> <p><strong>99/19:</strong> G. Kennedy. <em>Automated scoring of practical tests in an introductory course in information technology.</em> <a href="dp1999-abstracts.htm#dp1999-19">Abstract</a> \| <a href="papers/dp1999-19.pdf">Download</a> (216 KB)</p> <p><strong>99/20:</strong> A. Gray and S. MacDonell. <em>Fuzzy logic for software metric models throughout the development life-cycle.</em> <a href="dp1999-abstracts.htm#dp1999-20">Abstract</a> \| <a href="papers/dp1999-20.pdf">Download</a> (148 KB)</p> <p><strong>99/21:</strong> B. Norris and D. Rashid and W. Wong. <em>Wayfinding/navigation within a QTVR virtual environment: Preliminary results.</em> <a href="dp1999-abstracts.htm#dp1999-21">Abstract</a></p> <p><strong>99/22:</strong> P. Whigham and F. Recknagel. <em>Predictive modelling of plankton dynamics in freshwater lakes using genetic programming.</em> <a href="dp1999-abstracts.htm#dp1999-22">Abstract</a> \| <a href="papers/dp1999-22.pdf">Download</a> (264 KB)</p> <p><strong>99/23:</strong> N. Stanger. <em>Modifications to Smith’s method for deriving normalised relations from a functional dependency diagram.</em> <a href="dp1999-abstracts.htm#dp1999-23">Abstract</a> \| <a href="papers/dp1999-23.pdf">Download</a> (184 KB)</p> <p><strong>99/24:</strong> D. Parry and S. Cockcroft and A. Breton and D. Abernethy and J. Gillies. <em>The development of an electronic distance learning course in health informatics.</em> <a href="dp1999-abstracts.htm#dp1999-24">Abstract</a> \| <a href="papers/dp1999-24.pdf">Download</a> (496 KB)</p> <p><strong>99/25:</strong> S. Cockcroft and D. Parry and A. Breton and D. Abernethy and J. Gillies. <em>Infiltrating IT into primary care: A case study.</em> <a href="dp1999-abstracts.htm#dp1999-25">Abstract</a> \| <a href="papers/dp1999-25.pdf">Download</a> (92 KB)</p> <p><strong>99/26:</strong> D. Parry and W. K. Yeap and N. Pattison. <em>Using rough sets to study expert behaviour in induction of labour.</em> <a href="dp1999-abstracts.htm#dp1999-26">Abstract</a> \| <a href="papers/dp1999-26.pdf">Download</a> (108 KB)</p> <p><strong>99/27:</strong> D. Parry and A. Breton and D. Abernethy and S. Cockcroft and J. Gillies. <em>Using the Internet to teach health informatics.</em> <a href="dp1999-abstracts.htm#dp1999-27">Abstract</a> \| <a href="papers/dp1999-27.pdf">Download</a> (80 KB)</p> <p><strong>99/01:</strong> S. Cranefield and M.K. Purvis. <em>UML as an ontology modelling language.</em> <a href="dp1999-abstracts.htm#dp9901">Abstract</a> \| <a href="papers/dp9901sc.pdf.gz">Download</a> (156KB)</p> <p><strong>99/02:</strong> N. Kasabov. <em>Evolving connectionist systems for on-line, knowledge-based learning: Principles and applications.</em> <a href="dp1999-abstracts.htm#dp9902">Abstract</a> \| <a href="papers/dp9902nk.pdf.gz">Download</a> (800KB)</p> <p><strong>99/03:</strong> N. Kasabov and M. Watts. <em>Spatial-temporal adaptation in evolving fuzzy neural networks for on-line adaptive phoneme recognition.</em> <a href="dp1999-abstracts.htm#dp9903">Abstract</a> \| <a href="papers/dp9903nk.pdf.gz">Download</a> (438KB)</p> <p><strong>99/04:</strong> N. Kasabov and Q. Song. <em>Dynamic evolving fuzzy neural networks with ‘m-out-of-n’ activation nodes for on-line adaptive systems.</em> <a href="dp1999-abstracts.htm#dp9904">Abstract</a> \| <a href="papers/dp9904nk.pdf.gz">Download</a> (1.5MB)</p> <p><strong>99/05:</strong> J. Kim and N. Kasabov. <em>Hybrid neuro-fuzzy inference systems and their application for on-line adaptive learning of nonlinear dynamical systems.</em> <a href="dp1999-abstracts.htm#dp9905">Abstract</a> </p> <p><strong>99/06:</strong> M.K. Purvis, S. Cranefield and M. Nowostawski. <em>A distributed architecture for environmental information systems.</em> <a href="dp1999-abstracts.htm#dp9906">Abstract</a> \| <a href="papers/dp9906mp.pdf.gz">Download</a> (156Kb)</p> <p><strong>99/07:</strong> N. Kasabov, R. Kilgour and S. Sinclair. <em>From hybrid adjustable neuro-fuzzy systems to adaptive connectionist-based systems for phoneme and word recognition.</em> <a href="dp1999-abstracts.htm#dp9907">Abstract</a> </p> <p><strong>99/08:</strong> N. Kasabov, S. Israel and B. Woodford. <em>Adaptive, evolving, hybrid connectionist systems for image pattern recognition.</em> <a href="dp1999-abstracts.htm#dp9908">Abstract</a> \| <a href="papers/dp9908nk.pdf.gz">Download</a> (1.2MB)</p> <p><strong>99/09:</strong> W. Abdulla and N. Kasabov. <em>The concepts of hidden Markov model in speech recognition.</em> <a href="dp1999-abstracts.htm#dp9909">Abstract</a> \| <a href="papers/dp9909wa.pdf.gz">Download</a> (489KB)</p> <p><strong>99/10:</strong> D. Parry. <em>Finding medical information on the Internet: Who should do it and what should they know.</em> <a href="dp1999-abstracts.htm#dp9910">Abstract</a> \| <a href="papers/dp9910dp.pdf.gz">Download</a> (142KB)</p> <p><strong>99/11:</strong> A. Gray and S. MacDonell. <em>Software metrics data analysis—Exploring the relative performance of some commonly used modeling techniques.</em> <a href="dp1999-abstracts.htm#dp9911">Abstract</a> \| <a href="papers/dp9911ag.pdf.gz">Download</a> (219KB)</p> <p><strong>99/12:</strong> S. MacDonell, A. Gray, G. MacLennan and P. Sallis. <em>Software forensics for discriminating between program authors using case-based reasoning, feed-forward neural networks and multiple discriminant analysis.</em> <a href="dp1999-abstracts.htm#dp9912">Abstract</a> \| <a href="papers/dp9912sm.pdf.gz">Download</a> (123KB)</p> <p><strong>99/13:</strong> S. MacDonell, A. Gray and J. Calvert. <em>FULSOME: Fuzzy logic for software metric practitioners and researchers.</em> <a href="dp1999-abstracts.htm#dp9913">Abstract</a> \| <a href="papers/dp9913sm.pdf.gz">Download</a> (201KB)</p> <p><strong>99/14:</strong> B. Kitchenham, S. MacDonell, L. Pickard and M. Shepperd. <em>Assessing prediction systems.</em> <a href="dp1999-abstracts.htm#dp9914">Abstract</a> \| <a href="papers/dp9914bk.pdf.gz">Download</a> (239KB)</p> <p><strong>99/15:</strong> S. MacDonell and T. Fletcher. <em>Industry practices in project management for multimedia information systems.</em> <a href="dp1999-abstracts.htm#dp9915">Abstract</a> \| <a href="papers/dp9915sm.pdf.gz">Download</a> (167KB)</p> <p><strong>99/16:</strong> A. Gray, S. MacDonell and M. Shepperd. <em>Factors systematically associated with errors in subjective estimates of software development effort: The stability of expert judgment.</em> <a href="dp1999-abstracts.htm#dp9916">Abstract</a> \| <a href="papers/dp9916ag.pdf.gz">Download</a> (199KB)</p> <p><strong>99/17:</strong> M.K. Purvis, S. Cranefield, G. Bush, D. Carter, B. McKinlay, M. Nowostawski and R. Ward. <em>The NZDIS project: An agent-based distributed information systems architecture.</em> <a href="dp1999-abstracts.htm#dp9917">Abstract</a> \| <a href="papers/dp9917mp.pdf.gz">Download</a> (171KB)</p> <p><strong>99/18:</strong> S. Cranefield. <em>HTN planning for information processing tasks.</em> <a href="dp1999-abstracts.htm#dp9918">Abstract</a> \| <a href="papers/dp9918sc.pdf.gz">Download</a> (147KB)</p> <p><strong>99/19:</strong> G. Kennedy. <em>Automated scoring of practical tests in an introductory course in information technology.</em> <a href="dp1999-abstracts.htm#dp9919">Abstract</a> \| <a href="papers/dp9919gk.pdf.gz">Download</a> (138KB)</p> <p><strong>99/20:</strong> A. Gray and S. MacDonell. <em>Fuzzy logic for software metric models throughout the development life-cycle.</em> <a href="dp1999-abstracts.htm#dp9920">Abstract</a> \| <a href="papers/dp9920ag.pdf.gz">Download</a> (120KB)</p> <p><strong>99/21:</strong> B. Norris, D. Rashid and W. Wong. <em>Wayfinding/navigation within a QTVR virtual environment: Preliminary results.</em> <a href="dp1999-abstracts.htm#dp9921">Abstract</a> </p> <p><strong>99/22:</strong> P. Whigham and F. Recknagel. <em>Predictive modelling of plankton dynamics in freshwater lakes using genetic programming.</em> <a href="dp1999-abstracts.htm#dp9922">Abstract</a> \| <a href="papers/dp9922pw.pdf.gz">Download</a> (234KB)</p> <p><strong>99/23:</strong> N. Stanger. <em>Modifications to Smith’s method for deriving normalised relations from a functional dependency diagram.</em> <a href="dp1999-abstracts.htm#dp9923">Abstract</a> \| <a href="papers/dp9923ns.pdf.gz">Download</a> (158KB)</p> <p><strong>99/24:</strong> D. Parry, S. Cockcroft, A. Breton, D. Abernethy and J. Gillies. <em>The development of an electronic distance learning course in health informatics.</em> <a href="dp1999-abstracts.htm#dp9924">Abstract</a> \| <a href="papers/dp9924dp.pdf.gz">Download</a> (484KB)</p> <p><strong>99/25:</strong> S. Cockcroft, D. Parry, A. Breton, D. Abernethy and J. Gillies. <em>Infiltrating IT into primary care: A case study.</em> <a href="dp1999-abstracts.htm#dp9925">Abstract</a> \| <a href="papers/dp9925so.pdf.gz">Download</a> (72KB)</p> <p><strong>99/26:</strong> D. Parry, W.K. Yeap and N. Pattison. <em>Using rough sets to study expert behaviour in induction of labour.</em> <a href="dp1999-abstracts.htm#dp9926">Abstract</a> \| <a href="papers/dp9926dp.pdf.gz">Download</a> (78KB)</p> <p><strong>99/27:</strong> D. Parry, A. Breton, D. Abernethy, S. Cockcroft and J. Gillies. <em>Using the Internet to teach health informatics.</em> <a href="dp1999-abstracts.htm#dp9927">Abstract</a> \| <a href="papers/dp9927dp.pdf.gz">Download</a> (69KB)</p>

Ignore Space Show notes View

Website/dps1999-include.htm

<p><strong>99/01:</strong> S. Cranefield and M. K. Purvis. <em>UML as an ontology modelling language.</em> <a href="dp1999-abstracts.htm#dp1999-01">Abstract</a> |  <a href="papers/dp1999-01.pdf">Download</a> (204 KB)</p>

<p><strong>99/02:</strong> N. Kasabov. <em>Evolving connectionist systems for on-line, knowledge-based learning: Principles and applications.</em> <a href="dp1999-abstracts.htm#dp1999-02">Abstract</a> |  <a href="papers/dp1999-02.pdf">Download</a> (944 KB)</p>

<p><strong>99/03:</strong> N. Kasabov and M. Watts. <em>Spatial-temporal adaptation in evolving fuzzy neural networks for on-line adaptive phoneme recognition.</em> <a href="dp1999-abstracts.htm#dp1999-03">Abstract</a> |  <a href="papers/dp1999-03.pdf">Download</a> (560 KB)</p>

<p><strong>99/04:</strong> N. Kasabov and Q. Song. <em>Dynamic evolving fuzzy neural networks with &lsquo;m-out-of-n&rsquo; activation nodes for on-line adaptive systems.</em> <a href="dp1999-abstracts.htm#dp1999-04">Abstract</a> |  <a href="papers/dp1999-04.pdf">Download</a> (2 MB)</p>

<p><strong>99/05:</strong> J. Kim and N. Kasabov. <em>Hybrid neuro-fuzzy inference systems and their application for on-line adaptive learning of nonlinear dynamical systems.</em> <a href="dp1999-abstracts.htm#dp1999-05">Abstract</a></p>

<p><strong>99/06:</strong> M. K. Purvis and S. Cranefield and M. Nowostawski. <em>A distributed architecture for environmental information systems.</em> <a href="dp1999-abstracts.htm#dp1999-06">Abstract</a> |  <a href="papers/dp1999-06.pdf">Download</a> (208 Kb)</p>

<p><strong>99/07:</strong> N. Kasabov and R. Kilgour and S. Sinclair. <em>From hybrid adjustable neuro-fuzzy systems to adaptive connectionist-based systems for phoneme and word recognition.</em> <a href="dp1999-abstracts.htm#dp1999-07">Abstract</a></p>

<p><strong>99/08:</strong> N. Kasabov and S. Israel and B. Woodford. <em>Adaptive, evolving, hybrid connectionist systems for image pattern recognition.</em> <a href="dp1999-abstracts.htm#dp1999-08">Abstract</a> |  <a href="papers/dp1999-08.pdf">Download</a> (1.3 MB)</p>

<p><strong>99/09:</strong> W. Abdulla and N. Kasabov. <em>The concepts of hidden Markov model in speech recognition.</em> <a href="dp1999-abstracts.htm#dp1999-09">Abstract</a> |  <a href="papers/dp1999-09.pdf">Download</a> (556 KB)</p>

<p><strong>99/10:</strong> D. Parry. <em>Finding medical information on the Internet: Who should do it and what should they know.</em> <a href="dp1999-abstracts.htm#dp1999-10">Abstract</a> |  <a href="papers/dp1999-10.pdf">Download</a> (196 KB)</p>

<p><strong>99/11:</strong> A. Gray and S. MacDonell. <em>Software metrics data analysis&mdash;Exploring the relative performance of some commonly used modeling techniques.</em> <a href="dp1999-abstracts.htm#dp1999-11">Abstract</a> |  <a href="papers/dp1999-11.pdf">Download</a> (292 KB)</p>

<p><strong>99/12:</strong> S. MacDonell and A. Gray and G. MacLennan and P. Sallis. <em>Software forensics for discriminating between program authors using case-based reasoning, feed-forward neural networks and multiple discriminant analysis.</em> <a href="dp1999-abstracts.htm#dp1999-12">Abstract</a> |  <a href="papers/dp1999-12.pdf">Download</a> (148 KB)</p>

<p><strong>99/13:</strong> S. MacDonell and A. Gray and J. Calvert. <em>FULSOME: Fuzzy logic for software metric practitioners and researchers.</em> <a href="dp1999-abstracts.htm#dp1999-13">Abstract</a> |  <a href="papers/dp1999-13.pdf">Download</a> (236 KB)</p>

<p><strong>99/14:</strong> B. Kitchenham and S. MacDonell and L. Pickard and M. Shepperd. <em>Assessing prediction systems.</em> <a href="dp1999-abstracts.htm#dp1999-14">Abstract</a> |  <a href="papers/dp1999-14.pdf">Download</a> (304 KB)</p>

<p><strong>99/15:</strong> S. MacDonell and T. Fletcher. <em>Industry practices in project management for multimedia information systems.</em> <a href="dp1999-abstracts.htm#dp1999-15">Abstract</a> |  <a href="papers/dp1999-15.pdf">Download</a> (228 KB)</p>

<p><strong>99/16:</strong> A. Gray and S. MacDonell and M. Shepperd. <em>Factors systematically associated with errors in subjective estimates of software development effort: The stability of expert judgment.</em> <a href="dp1999-abstracts.htm#dp1999-16">Abstract</a> |  <a href="papers/dp1999-16.pdf">Download</a> (236 KB)</p>

<p><strong>99/17:</strong> M. K. Purvis and S. Cranefield and G. Bush and D. Carter and B. McKinlay and M. Nowostawski and R. Ward. <em>The NZDIS project: An agent-based distributed information systems architecture.</em> <a href="dp1999-abstracts.htm#dp1999-17">Abstract</a> |  <a href="papers/dp1999-17.pdf">Download</a> (212 KB)</p>

<p><strong>99/18:</strong> S. Cranefield. <em>HTN planning for information processing tasks.</em> <a href="dp1999-abstracts.htm#dp1999-18">Abstract</a> |  <a href="papers/dp1999-18.pdf">Download</a> (188 KB)</p>

<p><strong>99/19:</strong> G. Kennedy. <em>Automated scoring of practical tests in an introductory course in information technology.</em> <a href="dp1999-abstracts.htm#dp1999-19">Abstract</a> |  <a href="papers/dp1999-19.pdf">Download</a> (216 KB)</p>

<p><strong>99/20:</strong> A. Gray and S. MacDonell. <em>Fuzzy logic for software metric models throughout the development life-cycle.</em> <a href="dp1999-abstracts.htm#dp1999-20">Abstract</a> |  <a href="papers/dp1999-20.pdf">Download</a> (148 KB)</p>

<p><strong>99/21:</strong> B. Norris and D. Rashid and W. Wong. <em>Wayfinding/navigation within a QTVR virtual environment: Preliminary results.</em> <a href="dp1999-abstracts.htm#dp1999-21">Abstract</a></p>

<p><strong>99/22:</strong> P. Whigham and F. Recknagel. <em>Predictive modelling of plankton dynamics in freshwater lakes using genetic programming.</em> <a href="dp1999-abstracts.htm#dp1999-22">Abstract</a> |  <a href="papers/dp1999-22.pdf">Download</a> (264 KB)</p>

<p><strong>99/23:</strong> N. Stanger. <em>Modifications to Smith&rsquo;s method for deriving normalised relations from a functional dependency diagram.</em> <a href="dp1999-abstracts.htm#dp1999-23">Abstract</a> |  <a href="papers/dp1999-23.pdf">Download</a> (184 KB)</p>

<p><strong>99/24:</strong> D. Parry and S. Cockcroft and A. Breton and D. Abernethy and J. Gillies. <em>The development of an electronic distance learning course in health informatics.</em> <a href="dp1999-abstracts.htm#dp1999-24">Abstract</a> |  <a href="papers/dp1999-24.pdf">Download</a> (496 KB)</p>

<p><strong>99/25:</strong> S. Cockcroft and D. Parry and A. Breton and D. Abernethy and J. Gillies. <em>Infiltrating IT into primary care: A case study.</em> <a href="dp1999-abstracts.htm#dp1999-25">Abstract</a> |  <a href="papers/dp1999-25.pdf">Download</a> (92 KB)</p>

<p><strong>99/26:</strong> D. Parry and W. K. Yeap and N. Pattison. <em>Using rough sets to study expert behaviour in induction of labour.</em> <a href="dp1999-abstracts.htm#dp1999-26">Abstract</a> |  <a href="papers/dp1999-26.pdf">Download</a> (108 KB)</p>

<p><strong>99/27:</strong> D. Parry and A. Breton and D. Abernethy and S. Cockcroft and J. Gillies. <em>Using the Internet to teach health informatics.</em> <a href="dp1999-abstracts.htm#dp1999-27">Abstract</a> |  <a href="papers/dp1999-27.pdf">Download</a> (80 KB)</p>

<p><strong>99/01:</strong> S. Cranefield and M.K. Purvis. <em>UML as an ontology modelling language.</em> <a href="dp1999-abstracts.htm#dp9901">Abstract</a> | <a href="papers/dp9901sc.pdf.gz">Download</a> (156KB)</p>

<p><strong>99/02:</strong> N. Kasabov. <em>Evolving connectionist systems for on-line, knowledge-based learning: Principles and applications.</em> <a href="dp1999-abstracts.htm#dp9902">Abstract</a> | <a href="papers/dp9902nk.pdf.gz">Download</a> (800KB)</p>

<p><strong>99/03:</strong> N. Kasabov and M. Watts. <em>Spatial-temporal adaptation in evolving fuzzy neural networks for on-line adaptive phoneme recognition.</em> <a href="dp1999-abstracts.htm#dp9903">Abstract</a> | <a href="papers/dp9903nk.pdf.gz">Download</a> (438KB)</p>

<p><strong>99/04:</strong> N. Kasabov and Q. Song. <em>Dynamic evolving fuzzy neural networks with &#8216;m-out-of-n&#8217; activation nodes for on-line adaptive systems.</em> <a href="dp1999-abstracts.htm#dp9904">Abstract</a> | <a href="papers/dp9904nk.pdf.gz">Download</a> (1.5MB)</p>

<p><strong>99/06:</strong> M.K. Purvis, S. Cranefield and M. Nowostawski. <em>A distributed architecture for environmental information systems.</em> <a href="dp1999-abstracts.htm#dp9906">Abstract</a> | <a href="papers/dp9906mp.pdf.gz">Download</a> (156Kb)</p>

<p><strong>99/07:</strong> N. Kasabov, R. Kilgour and S. Sinclair. <em>From hybrid adjustable neuro-fuzzy systems to adaptive connectionist-based systems for phoneme and word recognition.</em> <a href="dp1999-abstracts.htm#dp9907">Abstract</a> </p>

<p><strong>99/08:</strong> N. Kasabov, S. Israel and B. Woodford. <em>Adaptive, evolving, hybrid connectionist systems for image pattern recognition.</em> <a href="dp1999-abstracts.htm#dp9908">Abstract</a> | <a href="papers/dp9908nk.pdf.gz">Download</a> (1.2MB)</p>

<p><strong>99/09:</strong> W. Abdulla and N. Kasabov. <em>The concepts of hidden Markov model in speech recognition.</em> <a href="dp1999-abstracts.htm#dp9909">Abstract</a> | <a href="papers/dp9909wa.pdf.gz">Download</a> (489KB)</p>

<p><strong>99/10:</strong> D. Parry. <em>Finding medical information on the Internet: Who should do it and what should they know.</em> <a href="dp1999-abstracts.htm#dp9910">Abstract</a> | <a href="papers/dp9910dp.pdf.gz">Download</a> (142KB)</p>

<p><strong>99/11:</strong> A. Gray and S. MacDonell. <em>Software metrics data analysis&#8212;Exploring the relative performance of some commonly used modeling techniques.</em> <a href="dp1999-abstracts.htm#dp9911">Abstract</a> | <a href="papers/dp9911ag.pdf.gz">Download</a> (219KB)</p>

<p><strong>99/12:</strong> S. MacDonell, A. Gray, G. MacLennan and P. Sallis. <em>Software forensics for discriminating between program authors using case-based reasoning, feed-forward neural networks and multiple discriminant analysis.</em> <a href="dp1999-abstracts.htm#dp9912">Abstract</a> | <a href="papers/dp9912sm.pdf.gz">Download</a> (123KB)</p>

<p><strong>99/13:</strong> S. MacDonell, A. Gray and J. Calvert. <em>FULSOME: Fuzzy logic for software metric practitioners and researchers.</em> <a href="dp1999-abstracts.htm#dp9913">Abstract</a> | <a href="papers/dp9913sm.pdf.gz">Download</a> (201KB)</p>

<p><strong>99/14:</strong> B. Kitchenham, S. MacDonell, L. Pickard and M. Shepperd. <em>Assessing prediction systems.</em> <a href="dp1999-abstracts.htm#dp9914">Abstract</a> | <a href="papers/dp9914bk.pdf.gz">Download</a> (239KB)</p>

<p><strong>99/15:</strong> S. MacDonell and T. Fletcher. <em>Industry practices in project management for
multimedia information systems.</em> <a href="dp1999-abstracts.htm#dp9915">Abstract</a> | <a href="papers/dp9915sm.pdf.gz">Download</a> (167KB)</p>

<p><strong>99/16:</strong> A. Gray, S. MacDonell and M. Shepperd. <em>Factors systematically associated with errors in subjective estimates of software development effort: The stability of expert judgment.</em> <a href="dp1999-abstracts.htm#dp9916">Abstract</a> | <a href="papers/dp9916ag.pdf.gz">Download</a> (199KB)</p>

<p><strong>99/17:</strong> M.K. Purvis, S. Cranefield, G. Bush, D. Carter, B. McKinlay, M. Nowostawski and R. Ward. <em>The NZDIS project: An agent-based distributed information systems architecture.</em> <a href="dp1999-abstracts.htm#dp9917">Abstract</a> | <a href="papers/dp9917mp.pdf.gz">Download</a> (171KB)</p>

<p><strong>99/18:</strong> S. Cranefield. <em>HTN planning for information processing tasks.</em> <a href="dp1999-abstracts.htm#dp9918">Abstract</a> | <a href="papers/dp9918sc.pdf.gz">Download</a> (147KB)</p>

<p><strong>99/19:</strong> G. Kennedy. <em>Automated scoring of practical tests in an introductory course in information technology.</em> <a href="dp1999-abstracts.htm#dp9919">Abstract</a> | <a href="papers/dp9919gk.pdf.gz">Download</a> (138KB)</p>

<p><strong>99/20:</strong> A. Gray and S. MacDonell. <em>Fuzzy logic for software metric models throughout the development life-cycle.</em> <a href="dp1999-abstracts.htm#dp9920">Abstract</a> | <a href="papers/dp9920ag.pdf.gz">Download</a> (120KB)</p>

<p><strong>99/21:</strong> B. Norris, D. Rashid and W. Wong. <em>Wayfinding/navigation within a QTVR virtual environment: Preliminary results.</em> <a href="dp1999-abstracts.htm#dp9921">Abstract</a> </p>

<p><strong>99/22:</strong> P. Whigham and F. Recknagel. <em>Predictive modelling of plankton dynamics in freshwater lakes using genetic programming.</em> <a href="dp1999-abstracts.htm#dp9922">Abstract</a> | <a href="papers/dp9922pw.pdf.gz">Download</a> (234KB)</p>

<p><strong>99/23:</strong> N. Stanger. <em>Modifications to Smith&#8217;s method for deriving normalised relations from a functional dependency diagram.</em> <a href="dp1999-abstracts.htm#dp9923">Abstract</a> | <a href="papers/dp9923ns.pdf.gz">Download</a> (158KB)</p>

<p><strong>99/24:</strong> D. Parry, S. Cockcroft, A. Breton, D. Abernethy and J. Gillies. <em>The development of an electronic distance learning course in health informatics.</em> <a href="dp1999-abstracts.htm#dp9924">Abstract</a> | <a href="papers/dp9924dp.pdf.gz">Download</a> (484KB)</p>

<p><strong>99/25:</strong> S. Cockcroft, D. Parry, A. Breton, D. Abernethy and J. Gillies. <em>Infiltrating IT into primary care: A case study.</em> <a href="dp1999-abstracts.htm#dp9925">Abstract</a> | <a href="papers/dp9925so.pdf.gz">Download</a> (72KB)</p>

<p><strong>99/26:</strong> D. Parry, W.K. Yeap and N. Pattison. <em>Using rough sets to study expert behaviour in induction of labour.</em> <a href="dp1999-abstracts.htm#dp9926">Abstract</a> | <a href="papers/dp9926dp.pdf.gz">Download</a> (78KB)</p>

<p><strong>99/27:</strong> D. Parry, A. Breton, D. Abernethy, S. Cockcroft and J. Gillies. <em>Using the Internet to teach health informatics.</em> <a href="dp1999-abstracts.htm#dp9927">Abstract</a> | <a href="papers/dp9927dp.pdf.gz">Download</a> (69KB)</p>

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