Intelligent Decision Technologies - Volume 1, issue 1-2

Authors: Jain, Lakhmi C. | Phillips-Wren, Gloria

Article Type: Editorial

DOI: 10.3233/IDT-2007-11-201

Citation: Intelligent Decision Technologies, vol. 1, no. 1-2, pp. 1-1, 2007

Authors: Kasap, Zerrin | Magnenat-Thalmann, Nadia

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: Intelligent virtual characters has been subject to exponential growth in the last decades and they are utilized in many application areas such as education, training, human-computer interfaces and entertainment. In this paper, we present a state-of-the-art of virtual human mentioning about the use of intelligent decision technologies in order to build virtual human architectures. We consider various aspects such as autonomy, interaction and personification. Each of these aspects comes to prominence in different applications. This survey provides a novel insight to the current state of designing and modeling virtual humans using different decision technologies and can be used as a …basis for several future directions. Show more

Keywords: Intelligent virtual human, decision-making, interaction

DOI: 10.3233/IDT-2007-11-202

Citation: Intelligent Decision Technologies, vol. 1, no. 1-2, pp. 3-15, 2007

Authors: Kodogiannis, Vassilis S.

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: Decision Support Systems have been utilised since 1960, providing physicians with fast and accurate means towards more accurate diagnoses, increased tolerance when handling missing or incomplete data. In this paper, an intelligent diagnostic system has been developed for the analysis of Wireless Capsule Endoscopic Images. Wireless Capsule Endoscopy (WCE) constitutes a recent technology in which a capsule with micro-camera attached to it, is swallowed by the patient. Two issues are being addressed, including the extraction of texture features from the texture spectra in the chromatic and achromatic domains from each colour component histogram of WCE images and the concept of …a fusion of multiple classifiers. The implementation of an advanced neural network, based on a modified Expectation Maximisation scheme that incorporates a dynamic structure methodology has been also adopted in this paper. The high detection accuracy of the proposed system provides thus an indication that such intelligent schemes could be used as a supplementary diagnostic tool in WCE. Show more

Keywords: Medical imaging, computer aided diagnosis, endoscopy, neural networks, Expectation-Maximisation algorithm, fuzzy integral

DOI: 10.3233/IDT-2007-11-203

Citation: Intelligent Decision Technologies, vol. 1, no. 1-2, pp. 17-31, 2007

Authors: Vo, Quoc Bao | Padgham, Lin | Cavedon, Lawrence

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: This paper presents an approach to automated negotiation between agents which attempts to combine the advantages of a co-operative value adding approach, with the reality that negotiating agents are also competing. We use the concept of a trusted mediator to facilitate openness regarding what one values, without disadvantaging oneself by revealing sensitive information (such as a reserve price) to the other party. Social science and management literature deals with negotiation between people, and so can be both more complex, and less well defined than automated negotiation between software agents. We take inspiration from the social science literature and develop a …computational framework to support negotiating software agents. The framework includes recognition that agents are self interested, and therefore will manipulate the system to their advantage if possible. We include mechanisms to discourage this kind of manipulation in the form of a transaction cost associated with making only small concessions, and a bias in dividing the pie which is the gain from trade which favours the agent who is most “honest” in making offers. Show more

Keywords: Automated negotiation, integrative and distributive bargaining, BATNA, multi-criteria decision making

DOI: 10.3233/IDT-2007-11-204

Citation: Intelligent Decision Technologies, vol. 1, no. 1-2, pp. 33-47, 2007

Authors: Finn, Anthony | Drake, Samuel Picton

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: One vision for the future battlespace comprises cooperatives of uninhabited vehicles working seamlessly together and with manned vehicles in an adversarial environment. This provides the future warfighter with the potential to extend his reach and access into areas intentionally denied to him. Realisation of this vision clearly requires significant scientific advances to be made in a number of areas. Moreover, it also implies complete autonomy, whereas in reality humans are likely to be retained within the decision-making cycle, issuing high-level directions, managing uncertainty, and injecting a degree of flexibility and creativity into the system. This paper outlines a …number of challenges that the Defence Science & Technology Organisation (DSTO), which is part of the Australian Department of Defence, anticipates it will have to overcome as it develops an experimental capability similar to the one described above. The capability under development employs small, inexpensive Uninhabited Air Vehicles (UAVs) to detect, identify, locate, track, and electronically engage ground-based targets such as radars. These UAVs have the capacity to act autonomously and cooperatively and rely upon a heterogeneous mix of relatively unsophisticated Electronic Warfare (EW) receivers to observe and engage with their adversarial environment. The information observed and shared by this autonomous, adaptive and geographically distributed set of UAVs provides a situational awareness picture that can then be shared across the command echelons. The paper also provides a brief overview of the current status of the DSTO program and the results of some recent trials. Show more

Keywords: Uninhabited Air Vehicle (UAV), multi-UAV, autonomous, cooperative, Network Centric Warfare (NCW), Distributed Electronic Warfare (EW), situational awareness

DOI: 10.3233/IDT-2007-11-205

Citation: Intelligent Decision Technologies, vol. 1, no. 1-2, pp. 49-62, 2007

Authors: Cerrito, Patricia B.

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: It is the purpose of this paper to investigate antibiotic prescribing for patients undergoing open heart surgery. Patient data were collected for approximately 2100 patients, with a focus on infection and antibiotic orders. Physicians were separated into high infection rate and low infection rate groups with 6% infection as the cutpoint. Market basket analysis and kernel density estimation were used to investigate the prescribing practices. The analysis indicated that there is a difference between the high infection and low infection groups in the amount and kind of antibiotic prescribed. Low infection physicians use more of the antibiotic, Cipro while high …infection physicians use Levaquin. Once the difference is found, other statistical methods are used to examine details, including text analysis. A data mining analysis of medication prescriptions can lead to improved decision making and patient outcomes. Show more

DOI: 10.3233/IDT-2007-11-206

Citation: Intelligent Decision Technologies, vol. 1, no. 1-2, pp. 63-69, 2007

Authors: Zaki, Younes | Pierre, Samuel

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: This paper proposes solutions based on mobile agents using mono-agent and multi-agent strategies for distributed meeting scheduling problem. Mobile agents are used in a typical decision-making scenario where they migrate to a calendar server to schedule a meeting between participants having time-conflicts. The mobile agent will either find a schedule matching all constraints or propose the best relaxed schedule violating some low-priority constraints, if no schedule respecting all constraints is found. The performance comparison is based on two metrics: the execution time and the total network load generated. Performance study results identify the cost of many operations used by the …agent-based paradigm, such as inter-agent communications and agent migration, in relation to the nature and size of information exchanged. The overall experimental results provide a glimpse of the possibilities that software agents offer to solve distributed problems. Show more

Keywords: Decision making, communication, coordination, distributed applications, mobile agents, multi-agent systems (MAS), multiparty event scheduling

DOI: 10.3233/IDT-2007-11-207

Citation: Intelligent Decision Technologies, vol. 1, no. 1-2, pp. 71-82, 2007

Authors: Loia, Vincenzo | Senatore, Sabrina

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: The continuing growth of the Internet contents makes difficult the information access, inducing the task of information retrieval highly critical. The search engines often return a huge quantity of Web data, which is irrelevant to the input query. The emergency of personalization in the web search activities demands stable synergies for retrieving relevant information which meets the user needs. This work proposes an agent-based system for supporting customized Web searches. The system replies to a typical web query providing ad-hoc user-profiled links to web pages. the basis of a learning activity, which constitute an initial knowledge The agents collect locally …the knowledge during an initial user querying/answering interaction phase and then interpret the meaning of collected information, by exploiting ontologies: they discover new semantic correlations among query terms, in order to refine the description of queries. These queries are used in the web search to provide more relevant replies, which reflect the user preferences and interest. This proposal represents a valid support for evidence-based applications, where sensitive contexts such as health care, medicine require high quality and unambiguous information in the specialized lexical domain. Show more

Keywords: Personalized web search, decision making, multi-agent systems, clustering, ontologies

DOI: 10.3233/IDT-2007-11-208

Citation: Intelligent Decision Technologies, vol. 1, no. 1-2, pp. 83-96, 2007