Motivated by applications in health care systems, this study focused on queueing network models with instances of simultaneous resource possession under capacity restrictions in different stages. Customers during service at certain nodes in the first-level or primary system may simultaneously need service from a second-level server. In this…

In environments where the state of the system changes rapidly, such as stock trading, air traffic control, network management, and process control, databases have been proposed as the platform to develop automated control systems. Information in such systems consists of "updates," reporting on the state of the environment and…

Describes design and presents examples of industrial use of small expert systems and guidelines for choosing problems which lend themselves to small tool solutions. Use of microcomputer facilitated decision tables to diagnose and categorize people, things, and issues is suggested, and development of three decision table formats is described. (MBR)

Describes methods for effecting the partition of information systems consisting of many components and interconnections into subsystems which are later made to interface with one another achieving an overall system. Clustering algorithms for the specific case of information systems are obtained and exemplified. Twenty-seven references are…

Describes SCISOR (System for Conceptual Information Summarization, Organization and Retrieval), a prototype intelligent information retrieval system that extracts useful information from large bodies of text. It overcomes limitations of linguistic coverage by applying a text processing strategy that is tolerant of unknown words and gaps in…

To demonstrate to computer programmers that the programming language Ada provides superior facilities for use in artificial intelligence applications, the three papers included in this report investigate the capabilities that exist within Ada for "pattern-directed" programming. The first paper (Larry H. Reeker, Tulane University) is…

In constructing a knowledge-based system, the knowledge engineer must convert rules of thumb provided by the domain expert and previously solved examples into a working system. Research in machine learning has produced algorithms that create rules for knowledge-based systems, but these algorithms require either many examples or a complete domain…

Describes the three subsystems of an information retrieval system (document descriptions, queries, and matching algorithms) and argues that the interdependency of these subsystems requires adaptation for the system to perform when any component changes. An algorithm for redescribing documents, in response to changes in queries and retrieval rules,…

The training requirements analysis model (TRAMOD) described in this report represents an important portion of the larger effort called the Digital Avionics Information System (DAIS) Life Cycle Cost (LCC) Study. TRAMOD is the second of three models that comprise an LCC impact modeling system for use in the early stages of system development. As…

In machine learning there is considerable interest in techniques which improve planning ability. Initial investigations have identified a wide variety of techniques to address this issue. Progress has been hampered by the utility problem, a basic tradeoff between the benefit of learned knowledge and the cost to locate and apply relevant knowledge.…

As the first of two papers delineating the design of Massachusetts' Management and Information System for Occupational Education (MISOE), these specific dimensions of MISOE structure and function are considered: (1) the distinction between economic and noneconomic analysis, (2) distinctions among census, sample, and other data, (3) the distinction…