1,720,979 research outputs found
Crop planting layout optimization in sustainable agriculture: A constraint programming approach
Full text linkIn sustainable agriculture, intercropping systems represent a valuable approach. These systems involve placing
mutually beneficial plant types in close proximity to each other, with the goal of exploiting biodiversity
to reduce pesticide and water usage, as well as improve soil nutrient utilization. Despite its potential, the
optimization of intercropping systems has received limited attention in previous studies. One of the first
steps in the design of an intercropping system is the solution of the crop planting layout problem, which
involves meeting crop demand while maximizing positive interactions between adjacent plants. We perform
a complexity analysis of this problem and solve it through constraint programming, an artificial intelligence
technique, which relies on automated reasoning, constraint propagation and search heuristics. To this aim, we
present two constraint programming models based on integer variables and interval variables, respectively.
Through a computational study on real-life instances, we examine the impact of different modelling approaches
on the difficulty of solving the crop planting layout problem with standard constraint programming solvers.
This research work has also provided the groundwork for a sowing robotic arm (under development), aiming
to automate intercropping systems and assist farm worker
Artificial intelligence and digital reproduction in art
Full text linkIn recent years, AI (artificial intelligence), seen as a set of different technologies
employed in the most diverse fields in emulating human intelligence, undoubtedly represents an extension of human capabilities, but nevertheless cannot substitute it [1]. Its
application can be found not only in the management of civil and social life and economic and political organization [2-3], but also in art and culture [4].
Indeed, as far as AI is concerned, in an area considered unique to human nature,
i.e. creativity, today AI is used in art, a situation which generates both enthusiasm and
perplexity. It is now seen as stimulating creativity, after being considered as having no
value in evaluating that faculty of which human beings are so proud, namely creativity,
in particular, artistic creativity
Design and Execution of Integrated Clinical Pathway: A Simplified Meta-Model and Associated Methodology
Full text linkIntegrated clinical pathways (ICPs) are task-oriented care plans detailing the essential steps of the therapeutic pathway referring to a specific clinical problem with a patient’s expected clinical course. ICPs represent an effective tool for resource management in the public and private health domains. To be automatically executed, the ICP process has to be described by means of complex general purpose description language (GPDL) formalisms. However, GPDLs make the process model difficult to grasp by a human. On the other hand, the adoption of a reduced set of graphical constructs prevents a fully automated process execution due to the lack of information required by a machine. Unfortunately, it is difficult to find a balance between modelling language expressiveness and the automated execution of the modelled processes. In this paper, we present a meta-model based on a GPDL to organize the ICP process knowledge. This meta-model allows the management of ICP information in a way that is independent from the graphic representation of the adopted modelling standard. We also propose a general framework and a methodology that aim to guarantee a high degree of automation in process execution. In particular, the corresponding execution engine is implemented as a chatbot (integrated with social media), which plays a two-fold role: during the actual execution of the entire ICP, it acts as a virtual assistant and gathers the patient’s health data. Tests performed on a real ICP showed that, thanks to the proposed solution, the chatbot engine is able to engage in a dialogue with the patient. We provide discussion about how the system could be extended and how it could be seen as an alternative to Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Natural Language Processing (NLP)-based approaches
A multi-modal tourist trip planner integrating road and pedestrian networks
Full text linkThe Tourist Trip Design Problem aims to prescribe a sightseeing plan that maximizes tourist satisfaction while taking into account a multitude of parameters and constraints, such as the distances among points of interest, the expected duration of each visit, the opening hours of each attraction, the time available daily. In this article we deal with a variant of the problem in which the mobility environment consists of a pedestrian network and a road network. Hence, a plan includes a car tour with a number of stops from which pedestrian subtours to attractions (each with its own time windows) depart. We study the problem and develop a method to evaluate the feasibility of solutions in constant time, to speed up the search. The proposed method is embedded into an ad-hoc iterated local search. Experimental results show that our approach can handle realistic instances with up to 3643 points of interest (over a seven day planning horizon) in few seconds
Clinical-chatbot AHP evaluation based on “quality in use” of ISO/IEC 25010
Full text linkBackground
Conversational agents are currently a valid alternative to humans in first-level interviews with users who need information, even in-depth, about services or products. In application domains such as health care, this technology can become pervasive only if the perceived ”quality in use” is appropriate. How to measure chatbot quality is an open question. The international standard ISO/IEC 25010 proposes a set of characteristics (effectiveness, efficiency, satisfaction, freedom from risk, and context coverage) to be considered when the ”quality in use” of a software system has to be measured.
Basic procedure
This study proposes a clinical chatbot comparison method based on quality. The proposed approach is based on Analytic Hierarchy Process methodology (AHP).
Findings
Our contribution is twofold. First, we propose a set of measures for each characteristic of ISO/IEC 25010 according to three classes of functionality: providing information, providing prescriptions and process management. Moreover a quantitative method is proposed for making homogeneous the pairwise weights when the AHP is used for the ”quality-in-use” comparison. As a case study, a comparison of two versions of a chatbot was performed.
Conclusions
The results show that the proposed approach provides an effective reference base for performing quality comparisons of medical chatbots compliant with the ISO/IEC 25010 standard
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
TestGraphia, a Software System for the Early Diagnosis of Dysgraphia
Full text linkDysgraphia, which is known as a writing disorder, is a specific disorder of writing regarding the reproduction of alphabetical and numerical signs. Dysgraphia may be related to dyspraxia, which is secondary to incomplete lateralization and characterized by a difficulty to reproduce alphabetical and numerical signs. Since the causes of dysgraphia are unknown, the rapid detection of symptoms is very important. In academic and clinical uses, the most common tool for detecting dysgraphia is an evaluation of the quality of writing on paper sheets. A writing analysis is based on rules for scoring the writing quality. In this paper, we discuss TestGraphia, which is a software system that can support doctors in making diagnoses and monitoring patients with dysgraphia in an objective manner. The system is based on known document analysis algorithms and modified or specially designed algorithms. Based on this software, a forms analysis requires considerably less time than that needed by traditional methods, enabling large screening activities and reducing time and cost. Potential dynamic changes in dysgraphia screening can be assessed by monitoring the quality of writing in a non-invasive way with reduced costs, both in the laboratory and the patient's home, and the appropriate frequency. In the system that we will describe, the mean time to execute a diagnosis is nearly ten times faster with trustworthy results
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
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