O presente trabalho discute a necessidade da representação e manipulação de incertezas na resolução de problemas por sistemas baseados em conhecimento, e como isto pode ser realizado utilizando redes de crenças. Este tipo de representação do conhecimento combina a teoria das probabilidades e teoria da decisão, para representar incertezas, com a teoria dos grafos, esta última apropriada para representar as relações de dependência entre as variáveis do modelo. Os diagramas de inferência - redes de crenças que permitem representar incertezas, decisões e preferências do usuário - são discutidos e adotados neste trabalho para desenvolver um sistema normativo de apoio à decisão. A problemática da explicação em sistemas bayesianos, relativamente nova quando comparada com a dos sistemas baseados em regras, é abordada. Neste contexto dois mecanismos de explicação para diagramas de influência são propostos: análise de sensibilidade e as redes probabilísticas qualitativas. Estes mecanismos são usados para gerar conclusões genéricas bem como para entender qualitativamente as relações entre as ações e eventos que fazem parte do modelo. Uma ferramenta gráfica de apoio à decisão baseada em diagramas de influências foi implementada na linguagem Smalltalk. Este aplicativo não só permite representar e avaliar o problema do usuário como também incorpora as facilidades de explicação acima descritas. A possibilidade de observar graficamente o que acontece com o modelo quando os valores das variáveis são modificados - análise de sensibilidade - permite compreender melhor o problema descobrindo quais as variáveis que influenciam as decisões e auxilia a refinar os valores das variáveis envolvidas. Por outro lado às redes probabilísticas qualitativas permitem realizar abstrações e simplificações apropriadas do modelo, i.e., obter as relações qualitativas do modelo a partir de seu nível quantitativo. As conclusões genéricas obtidas servem tanto para limitar o espaço da estratégia ótima quanto para entender qualitativamente as relações entre as ações e eventos que fazem parte do modelo. / This work discusses the knowledge representation and uncertainty handling of knowledge based systems that use belief networks for this purpose. These sorts of networks combine the theory of probability and decision theory to represent uncertainty- with graph theory to represent the dependence relations between the model parameters. Systems that use belief networks as knowledge representation are named Bayesian or normative systems. This work investigates and adopts influence diagrams -belief networks that represent uncertainty, decisions and preferences- to develop a normative decision support system. Comprehensible explanations for probabilistic reasoning systems are a prerequisite for wider acceptance of Bayesian methods. Two schemes for explaining influence diagrams are proposed: sensitivity analysis and qualitative probabilistic networks, aiming to find general conclusions and to qualitatively understand the relations between the actions and events of the model. A graphical decision support system that represents the user problem as influence diagrams has been implemented in Smalltalk. This system allows to represent and evaluate decision problems and incorporates the explanation facilities mentioned above. The possibility to observe graphically the model as the variables change -sensitivity analysis- permits a better understanding of the problem by finding the significant variables. This process also helps to adjust the variables values. Furthermore, the qualitative probabilistic networks allow to realize model abstractions and simplifications, i.e., to obtain the qualitative relations from the quantitative level. These general conclusions limit the optimal strategy space and allow to qualitatively understanding the relations between actions and events in the model.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:22:20Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2007-12-14Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T20:48:46Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 vignoli_jcs_me_sjrp.pdf: 1219435 bytes, checksum: 616ec96df3d296bc6af6cf7ec0528071 (MD5) / Seed - Secretaria de Educação do Estado de São Paulo / A presente dissertação filia-se à Lingüística Textual, mais precisamente a uma abordagem sociocognitiva-interacionista, elegendo para objeto de estudo o texto, entendido como lugar de interação. Justificamos nosso recorte teórico pela opção de analisarmos, de maneira comparativa, as condições de produção e os textos delas resultantes, conjugando, portanto, o processo e seu produto. Nosso objetivo, então, é encontrar pistas nas produções escolares que remetam às orientações dadas em sala de aula, isto é, buscamos nos textos marcas que sinalizem as informações fornecidas em aulas de redação. Para tanto, observamos aulas em duas escolas particulares de São José do Rio Preto, ambas de terceiro ano do Ensino Médio, e relatamos os encaminhamentos dados para a produção textual. Essa descrição se baseou nos quatro sistemas cognitivos necessários para a produção textual – lingüístico, interacional, enciclopédico e sobre modelos textuais globais – descritos pela corrente sociocognitivista da Lingüística Textual, aos quais nós acrescentamos um outro saber - o conhecimento sobre organização tópica, pautado pelas propriedades da centração e da organicidade. Os textos coletados foram analisados a partir da categoria de tópico discursivo, com o intuito de observarmos a (des)organização tópica existente nas redação escolares. Quanto aos textos reescritos, além das aulas de orientação, levamos em conta as correções efetuadas pelos professores nos textos originais, a fim de verificar se esses novos direcionamentos contribuíam para a obtenção de textos organizados topicamente. Como resultado, percebemos que, apesar de algumas diferenças quanto ao modo de as aulas serem dadas nas duas salas informantes, a maioria dos textos não se apresentou dotado de organização tópica, fato que pôde ser explicitado pela natureza das orientações dadas em sala de aula. / The current dissertation joins to the Textual Linguistics with a sociocognitive – interacting approach, choosing as study goal the text, seen as the interaction place. The theoretical clipping is justified by the comparative analysis of the production conditions and the resulting texts, therefore joining the process and the product. The goal is to find clues in the school productions that rely on the classroom orientation, that is, we seek for signs from the composition classes. So that we observed classes in two private school groups in Sao Jose do Rio Preto, both in the third year of High School, and enrolled the directions given to textual production – linguistics, interactive, encyclopedic and about the global textual models – as described by the sociocognitivist running of Textual Linguistics, to which we added another knowledge – about topical organization, regulated by the properties of “centration” and “organicity”. The collected texts were analysed in the category of discursive topic, with the intention of observing the topical (dis)organization in the school compositions. As for the rewritten texts, besides the orientation classes, the corrections made by the teachers into the original texts were taken into account, in order to verify if the new orientations contributed in obtaining texts with topical organization. As a result, it was noticed that, in spite of some differences in the way the classes were given in the two observed groups, most of the texts weren’t endowed with topical organization and this result could be explained by the nature of orientation that were given in the classes.

>Magister Scientiae - MSc / This study sought to identify the bottlenecks in the promotion of Zimbabwean Traditional Medicines (ZTMs) towards improving the national healthcare delivery system. The indigenous medicines lost value and recognition to the Conventional Western Medicines introduced by the British colonialist since 1871 and is still dominating the national healthcare delivery system. There are growing challenges to ensure accessibility of affordable drugs especially for primary healthcare. The World Health Organization (WHO) and United Nations (UN) is in support of re-engaging indigenous medical interventions to achieve the Millennium development goals. Indigenous Traditional Medicine Knowledge-Based Systems (ITMKS) form the basis of the main source of health care for about 80% of the population in the developing countries. The implementation of the Zimbabwe Traditional Medicines Policy (ZTMP) has been at a stand-still since inception in 2007. The research used mixed methods involving qualitative and quantitative approaches. Data was collected through desk and field research. Questionnaires and focus group discussions were used to record perceptions and attitudes of key informants. The stakeholders included Traditional Health Practitioners (THPs), Medical Doctors, Pharmacists, Medical Research Council of Zimbabwe (MRCZ) staff, Medicines Control Authority of Zimbabwe (MCAZ), Traditional Medical Practitioner’s Council (TMPC), Zimbabwe National Traditional Healers Association (Zinatha), Ministry of Health and Childcare, WHO, Higher Education Institutions (UZ School of Pharmacy staff and students), Christian Groups, NGOs and Prostate Cancer Patients in Harare CBD. The stakeholders sampling framework was obtained from the list of registered practitioners. The stakeholder mapping involved selection of 5 key informants from each focus group obtained through random selection. The Snowball sampling technique was used to follow the closest 5 key informants in each focus group. The key findings established that 80% of respondents agreed to the integration of ZTM. The major bottlenecks were lack of modern dosage forms and standardization to determine quality, safety and efficacy of the ZTM. The study suggests that in order to fast track the integration process, a bottom up implementation strategy providing ZTM advocacy, capacity building in the institutionalization and training of ZTMPs, pharmacists and CMP need to be engaged for a favorable and quick buy-in. The study also recommends further analysis of the Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS) areas of specialization in pharmaceutical practice in order to improve treatment outcomes.

The ability to retrieve accurate information from databases without an extensive knowledge of the contents and organization of each database is extremely beneficial to the dissemination and utilization of freight data. The challenges, however, are: 1) correctly identifying only the relevant information and keywords from questions when dealing with multiple sentence structures, and 2) automatically retrieving, preprocessing, and understanding multiple data sources to determine the best answer to user’s query. Current named entity recognition systems have the ability to identify entities but require an annotated corpus for training which in the field of transportation planning does not currently exist. A hybrid approach which combines multiple models to classify specific named entities was therefore proposed as an alternative. The retrieval and classification of freight related keywords facilitated the process of finding which databases are capable of answering a question. Values in data dictionaries can be queried by mapping keywords to data element fields in various freight databases using ontologies. A number of challenges still arise as a result of different entities sharing the same names, the same entity having multiple names, and differences in classification systems. Dealing with ambiguities is required to accurately determine which database provides the best answer from the list of applicable sources. This dissertation 1) develops an approach to identify and classifying keywords from freight related natural language queries, 2) develops a standardized knowledge representation of freight data sources using an ontology that both computer systems and domain experts can utilize to identify relevant freight data sources, and 3) provides recommendations for addressing ambiguities in freight related named entities. Finally, the use of knowledge base expert systems to intelligently sift through data sources to determine which ones provide the best answer to a user’s question is proposed. / text

Since the decoding of the human genome project concluded in 2003, rapid technological advances in the area of human genetics including genetic testing and bio banking have accelerated. Public discussion of genetic testing and biobanking are the focus of this thesis. Genetic profiling and predictive tests aim to establish the causal conditions for disorders such as Fragile X, cystic fibrosis and Huntington's disease. Biobanking involves the storage of genetic material for genetic research and can also include genealogical research. The complex and varied relationships that Maori (indigenous peoples of New Zealand) in different social locations have with western science (and human genetics in particular) is at the heart of this thesis. The thesis explores the responses of three differently located Maori social groups to the challenges posed by genetic testing and biobanking. Focus/contact group discussion with Maori members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, a group of rongoa or traditional Maori health practitioners, and a group of Maori lawyers illustrate both diversity in the ways in which Maori respond to the issues posed by human genetics, and connections among them as they draw on Maori ontologies and epistemologies. In the analyses of these discussions which constitute the core of this thesis, Maori can be seen juggling alternative frames of reference and negotiating between knowledge systems. The thesis does not purport to provide an overview of Maori responses to genetic testing. Instead it uses discussion among three groups of research participants to illustrate the relevance of temporal and relational knowledge in local situations. A range of social science and Te Ao Maori conceptual tools are used to analyse conversations among research participants. These tools include discussion of power/knowledge and governmentality, actor network theory, sociological discussions of agency as well as concepts of whakapapa, kaitiaki, mauri, and mana motuhake. My goal is to illustrate both connection and heterogeneity in Maori responses to the challenges posed by genetic testing and bio banking.

Nous nous intéressons aux approches par EDP pour la régularisation d'images scalaires et multivaluées définies sur des supports non plans et à leurs applications à des problèmes de traitement des images. Nous étudions la relation entre les méthodes existantes et les comparons en termes de performance et complexité d'implémentation. Nous développons de nouvelles méthodes numériques pour traiter des opérateurs de type divergence utilisés dans les méthodes de régularisation par EDPs sur des surfaces triangulées.<br />Nous généralisons la technique de régularisation du Flot de Beltrami pour le cas des images définies sur des surfaces implicites et explicites. Des implémentations sont proposées pour ces méthodes, et des expériences sont exposées. Nous montrons aussi une application concrète de ces méthodes à un problème de cartographie rétinotopique.

The academic community and government agencies are increasingly recognizing how Indigenous knowledge can enrich environmental monitoring and inform adaptation in complex social-ecological systems. Indeed, Indigenous peoples have been monitoring, managing, and adapting to their environments for thousands of years. Despite the impacts of ongoing colonialism, many Indigenous peoples continue to monitor and exert their knowledge and governance systems through ongoing use and relationship with their traditional territories. This Master’s research grew from the Gitga’at First Nation’s Oceans and Lands Department desire to formally include the knowledge and observations of their land and sea users as part of contemporary stewardship initiatives. The primary objective of this research was to provide a framework for an ongoing monitoring system based in the observations and knowledge of Gitga’at harvesters. In order to meet this objective, I asked three main research questions: 1. How has Indigenous knowledge interacted with environmental monitoring initiatives, and what are characteristics of effective and self-sustaining monitoring initiatives that engage Indigenous knowledge?; 2. What methods of Indigenous knowledge documentation and communication are best suited to the needs and objectives of the Gitga’at First Nation?; and 3. How does ongoing use and occupancy of Gitga’at territory inform community-based monitoring? I first conducted a review of the literature on Indigenous knowledge and environmental monitoring to explore the ways in which Indigenous peoples and their knowledges have been engaged in other monitoring initiatives. I found that Indigenous knowledge has been engaged in a number of ways ranging from traditional land-based activities providing holistic social-ecological monitoring indicators, to the employment of Indigenous field technicians for externally-drive monitoring initiatives. Effective projects involved high degrees of community participation or direction; were built on partnerships based on trust and respect for various knowledge systems; used multiple methods to document and communicate Indigenous knowledge; and had institutional links between monitoring and management bodies. To answer my second research question, I followed a participatory case study approach in partnership with Gitga’at co-researchers. We began with informal interviews with 36 knowledge holders to gauge interest in the project and to establish monitoring objectives. These were followed by two community meetings and 12 workshops to design methods for documenting their observations. We then iteratively designed and tested these methods over the course of two traditional harvest seasons. We interviewed 23 participants following the spring 2017 harvest season and 27 after the fall/winter 2017 harvest season. We also conducted 4 semi-structured interviews with department leaders to ensure that the information gathered was meeting the needs of the Gitga’at Oceans and Lands Department, Treaty Negotiators, the Hartley Bay School and the Gitga’at Health Department. Key outcomes are a harvest logbook, and an interview guide to be administered by community researchers following each harvest season. To answer my third research question, I conducted a conceptual framework analysis on the notes and transcripts taken while designing and testing a monitoring program based in the observations and knowledge of Gitga’at land and sea users. An interconnected set of social-ecological concepts and indicators that are monitored by Gitga’at harvesters emerged. The framework I developed based on conversations about Gitga’at monitoring through harvesting activities highlights the importance of maintaining and revitalizing Indigenous knowledge and harvesting practices in order to continue social-ecological monitoring, as well as opportunities for scientific approaches to situate themselves within Indigenous frameworks and priorities. This research provides the Gitga’at First Nation with foundations from which to pursue ongoing documentation of observations and knowledge produced through harvesting activities as a form of social-ecological monitoring. It also serves as a guide for other Indigenous nations that wish to embark on similar initiatives. Amidst discussions of marine and coastal resource co-management in British-Columbia and Indigenous resurgence, this research adds to the literature that re-enforces the importance of Indigenous governance and access to their lands and waters, and the continuation of Indigenous relationships to the land and sea in order to inform social-ecological monitoring for the benefit of all. / Graduate

O presente trabalho discute a necessidade da representação e manipulação de incertezas na resolução de problemas por sistemas baseados em conhecimento, e como isto pode ser realizado utilizando redes de crenças. Este tipo de representação do conhecimento combina a teoria das probabilidades e teoria da decisão, para representar incertezas, com a teoria dos grafos, esta última apropriada para representar as relações de dependência entre as variáveis do modelo. Os diagramas de inferência - redes de crenças que permitem representar incertezas, decisões e preferências do usuário - são discutidos e adotados neste trabalho para desenvolver um sistema normativo de apoio à decisão. A problemática da explicação em sistemas bayesianos, relativamente nova quando comparada com a dos sistemas baseados em regras, é abordada. Neste contexto dois mecanismos de explicação para diagramas de influência são propostos: análise de sensibilidade e as redes probabilísticas qualitativas. Estes mecanismos são usados para gerar conclusões genéricas bem como para entender qualitativamente as relações entre as ações e eventos que fazem parte do modelo. Uma ferramenta gráfica de apoio à decisão baseada em diagramas de influências foi implementada na linguagem Smalltalk. Este aplicativo não só permite representar e avaliar o problema do usuário como também incorpora as facilidades de explicação acima descritas. A possibilidade de observar graficamente o que acontece com o modelo quando os valores das variáveis são modificados - análise de sensibilidade - permite compreender melhor o problema descobrindo quais as variáveis que influenciam as decisões e auxilia a refinar os valores das variáveis envolvidas. Por outro lado às redes probabilísticas qualitativas permitem realizar abstrações e simplificações apropriadas do modelo, i.e., obter as relações qualitativas do modelo a partir de seu nível quantitativo. As conclusões genéricas obtidas servem tanto para limitar o espaço da estratégia ótima quanto para entender qualitativamente as relações entre as ações e eventos que fazem parte do modelo. / This work discusses the knowledge representation and uncertainty handling of knowledge based systems that use belief networks for this purpose. These sorts of networks combine the theory of probability and decision theory to represent uncertainty- with graph theory to represent the dependence relations between the model parameters. Systems that use belief networks as knowledge representation are named Bayesian or normative systems. This work investigates and adopts influence diagrams -belief networks that represent uncertainty, decisions and preferences- to develop a normative decision support system. Comprehensible explanations for probabilistic reasoning systems are a prerequisite for wider acceptance of Bayesian methods. Two schemes for explaining influence diagrams are proposed: sensitivity analysis and qualitative probabilistic networks, aiming to find general conclusions and to qualitatively understand the relations between the actions and events of the model. A graphical decision support system that represents the user problem as influence diagrams has been implemented in Smalltalk. This system allows to represent and evaluate decision problems and incorporates the explanation facilities mentioned above. The possibility to observe graphically the model as the variables change -sensitivity analysis- permits a better understanding of the problem by finding the significant variables. This process also helps to adjust the variables values. Furthermore, the qualitative probabilistic networks allow to realize model abstractions and simplifications, i.e., to obtain the qualitative relations from the quantitative level. These general conclusions limit the optimal strategy space and allow to qualitatively understanding the relations between actions and events in the model.

In the wake of diversifying economy through science and technology, the government of Botswana is particularly inclined to Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) and Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS). IPR in its nature of advocating exclusive rights by the creator comes into direct conflict with the practice and understanding of IKS as community property, and a shared resource. To date, there is very little research work that explores policymakers’ knowledge about IPR and IKS in developing countries. Botswana, a developing country is yet to benefit from this type of research. This research investigated policymakers’ knowledge and practices of IPR on IKS in Botswana. The focus was on policymakers’ knowledge and practices, interaction with policy, and how their actions could be understood and explained. The study was conducted in four government departments, and one non-governmental organisation. Semi-structured interviews and document analysis were used to collect data. The findings of the study show that there is general lack of understanding about IPR in the public domain. Policymakers nonetheless know quite substantially about IPR and very little about IKS. This position puts indigenous knowledge on the periphery, and on the brink of being swallowed by other technologies. Moreover, the study uncovered evidence that the IPR and IKS activities are fragmented and policymakers treat each other with a great deal of suspicion and misunderstanding, hence affecting successful implementation of policy and projects particularly between two units in the study- the ministry of Communication, Science and Technology and the ministry of Trade and Industry. The study concludes by arguing that policymakers still require a great deal of assistance to really make sense of their practice. A lot of teaching and learning about policy is necessary to encourage broader participation in science policymaking in the context of a developing country like Botswana. / Dissertation (MEd (Science and Technology Education))--University of Pretoria, 2008. / Curriculum Studies / unrestricted

Magister Educationis - MEd / Over the last 15 years the Department of Education has rolled out various projects in an attempt to improve Mathematics and Science results and to increase the amount of learners who exit their schooling with those subjects. The 2010 - 2014 matric results show a decrease in the number of students who exiting with Science. One of the factors that might influence the learners' decision to do science can be ascribed to the methodologies that the teachers are using to teach Science. In response to the latter, this study investigated the cognitive shifts of grade two learners' conceptual knowledge of the day and night cycle after being exposed to a Dialogical Argumentation Based Instructional Model. The Contiguity Argumentation Theory (CAT) and Toulmin's Argumentation Pattern (TAP) were used as a framework to capture and interrogate learners' arguments with argumentation frames developed to categorize the learners’ argument responses. Analytical approaches were used to assess learners' argumentation skills along four stages namely intra-argumentation, inter-argumentation, whole class discussion and trans-argumentation. The study employed both quantitative and qualitative methods. The data was collected from grade 2 learners in a primary school in Cape Town, Western Cape Province in the form of a pre-post questionnaire, focus group interviews and classroom observation. The major findings of this study indicated that ● The Dialogical Argumentation Instructional model can assist learners to develop argumentative skills. ● The grade two learners in this study had alternative conceptions regarding the day and night cycle which is not scientifically valid. ● The views that learners hold are egocentric. ● DAIM is an effective teaching strategy to help learners to eliminate the misconceptions This study has shown that the Dialogical Argumentation Instructional Model (DAIM) seems to be effective in enhancing the learners’ understanding of the day and night cycle. / National Research Foundation