The scientific study of wisdom is a contentious field. There is little agreement among dominant research programs concerning how to conceptualize and measure the elusive phenomenon of wisdom. The current study argues for a narrative analysis of this concept given that autobiographical stories offer a contextually rich vista into real-life manifestations of wisdom. Presented here is a qualitative investigation of autobiographical wisdom narratives from 8 individuals distributed across parameters of age, gender, and degree of wisdom. Results point to the possibility that relatively wise persons define wisdom more elaborately, participate in more sophisticated autobiographical reasoning processes, and engage with master narratives in a more evaluative and critical manner than relatively unwise individuals. These features did not appear to differ across levels of age and gender. This study validates a narrative approach to the science of wisdom, and suggests that stories may be central to advancing our understanding of this concept.

The scientific study of wisdom is a contentious field. There is little agreement among dominant research programs concerning how to conceptualize and measure the elusive phenomenon of wisdom. The current study argues for a narrative analysis of this concept given that autobiographical stories offer a contextually rich vista into real-life manifestations of wisdom. Presented here is a qualitative investigation of autobiographical wisdom narratives from 8 individuals distributed across parameters of age, gender, and degree of wisdom. Results point to the possibility that relatively wise persons define wisdom more elaborately, participate in more sophisticated autobiographical reasoning processes, and engage with master narratives in a more evaluative and critical manner than relatively unwise individuals. These features did not appear to differ across levels of age and gender. This study validates a narrative approach to the science of wisdom, and suggests that stories may be central to advancing our understanding of this concept.

The aim of this thesis is to study the role played by negation in databases and to develop data models that can handle inconsistent and incomplete information. We develop models that also allow incompleteness through disjunctive information under both the CWA and the OWA in relational databases. In the area of logic programming, extended logic programs allow explicit representation of negative information. As a result, a number of extended logic programs have an inconsistent semantics. We present a translation of extended logic programs to normal logic programs that is more tolerant to inconsistencies. Extended logic programs have also been used widely in order to compute the repairs of an inconsistent database. We present some preliminary ideas on how source information can be incorporated into the repair program in order to produce a subset of the set of all repairs based on a preference for certain sources over others.

Reasoners who adopt the perspective of another can increase the proportion of logically valid inferences they make (Thompson, Evans, & Handley, 2005). A possible explanation is that shifting perspective promotes analytic reasoning. If this were the case, then shifting perspectives should also reduce the belief-bias effect. Furthermore, strong evidence should be preferred over weak evidence. To test this, 256 participants read twenty-four research descriptions that varied in evidence quality and degree of personal belief content. Participants indicated whether the data supported the researchers hypotheses. Belief bias was reduced when participants evaluated the data from the researchers perspective relative to their own. Evidence strength was an important determining factor in decision-making and it was sensitive to perspective and individual differences.

I dagsläget saknar Thor Ahlgren AB underlag för att på ett enkelt sätt kunna kalkylera och uppskatta priset för ett pressverktyg. När företaget får en förfrågan från kund angående huruvida de kan producera en detalj måste de återkomma med en offert till kunden där ett pris för verktygskostnaden är inkluderad. Innan ett pris kan offereras till kund måste Thor Ahlgren AB kontakta en verktygsmakare för prisförslag på verktyget och denna process kan variera i tid. Syftet med arbetet är att förkorta eller eliminera denna process och på så vis kunna offerera pris för konstruktion av ett pressverktyg snabbare. För att möjliggöra detta har författarna av rapporten identifierat de väsentliga parametrarna vid tillverkning av pressverktyg. För att möjliggöra identifiering av parametrarna har gruppen tagit hjälp av företagets produktionstekniker Björn Johansson och intervjuer med verktygsmakare. Gruppen utförde tre intervjuer med erfarna verktygsmakare från olika delar av landet. Genom intervju och diskussion med Thor Ahlgrens produktionstekniker Björn Johansson kunde flera verktygsparametrar identifieras som väsentliga, dvs. de konstaterades som kostnadsdrivande vid konstruktion av pressverktyg. Parametrarna var material och tjocklek på detalj som ska produceras i verktyget, antal steg i verktyg samt storlek på verktyg. Insamlandet av verktygsdata såsom pris hämtades från Thor Ahlgrens affärssystem Monitor medan data för antal steg och verktygsdimensioner hämtades genom undersökning av verktygen i företagets produktion. Informationen sammanställdes i Microsoft Excel för att användas som en databas. I framtiden kan Thor Ahlgren AB fortsätta fylla listan med fler verktyg och parametrar. Sedan kan listan med fördel användas som en databas i en beräkningsmodell eller i ett speciellt konstruerat datorprogram för prisuppskattning av pressverktyg. Ett datorprogram har utvecklats av gruppens handledare Joel Johansson för ändamålet. Easy CBR är ett lättanvänt verktyg som ska fungera som en plattform för automatisering av enklare konstruktionsprocesser. Programmet har en koppling till Excel så att tabeller, som den aktuella verktygslistan, kan föras in och analyseras i systemet. Funktionen möjliggör att sökningar kan utföras så att ny verktygsdata jämförs med data för äldre verktyg. Detta utgör teorin för Case-based Reasoning som bygger på att jämföra nya problem med äldre, redan lösta problem. Teorin appliceras på verktygslistan med hjälp av programmet Easy CBR. Programmet kan finna liknande verktyg vilket kan ge uppskattning om vad inköpspriset på det nya verktyget kan komma att vara. Författarna av rapporten anser att det finns potential inom området och att projektet samt datorverktyget har goda utvecklingsmöjligheter om arbetet fortskrids. / The current situation is that Thor Ahlgren AB lacks in the basis of a simple tool to calculate and estimate the price for tools used for sheet metal forming. The company receives an inquiry from a customer regarding if they can produce a product. Further on they must present a price for the customer where the tooling cost is included. Before a price can be presented to the customer Thor AhlgrenAB needs to contact several toolmakers for the price of the tool and this process can vary in time. The goal of this work is to reduce or eliminate the time for this process and then be able to offer a price for the tool to the customer faster. To do this the authors of the report had to identify the essential parameters in the manufacturing of pressing tools. In order to identify the essential parameters the group had help from the production technician Björn Johansson at Thor Ahlgren AB and several interviews with toolmakers. The group conducted three interviews with experienced toolmakers from different parts of the country. The interviews were spread out over the project time to make it possible to discuss ideas and theories that arose during the collection of tool data and literature review. From discussion with Björn Johansson at Thor Ahlgren AB the group was able to identify several tool parameters as essential, i.e. they were founded as cost drivers for the design in manufacturing of pressing tools. These parameters were identified as the material and thickness of the product that will be produced by the tool, the number of steps in the tool and the size of the tool. Tool prices was found in Thor Ahlgren’s Enterprise resource planning system called Monitor while data concerning the number of steps and tool dimensions that were retrieved from examination of the tools in the company’s production site. This information was assembled in the program Microsoft Excel as a database. In the future the company will be able to continue to fill the list with more tools and parameters. The list will be used as a database in a calculation model or specially designed computer software for estimating price for manufacture of tools. A computer software has been developed by the group instructor Joel Johansson to be used in this purpose. Easy CBR is an easy tool to use that will serve as a platform for the automation of simple construction processes. The software has a link to Microsoft Excel to make it possible to retrieve data from the database and analyze it using the tool. New tool data will be compared with the old data of the tools and the best match will be presented. This follows the theory of Case-based Reasoning that’s based on comparing new cases with old, already solved cases or problems. This theory is applied to the database with help of Easy CBR. In this way similar tools can give the engineer an estimated price for the new tool. The authors of this report believes that there is potential in this area of work and if the work continues it is possible to develop a software that will be useful for Thor Ahlgren AB.

Per tal de garantir la qualitat final d'un sistema d'informació, és imprescindible que l'esquema conceptual que representa el coneixement sobre el seu domini i les funcions que ha de realitzar sigui semànticament correcte.La correctesa d'un esquema conceptual es pot veure des de dues perspectives. Per una banda, des del punt de vista de la seva definició, determinar la correctesa d'un esquema conceptual consisteix en respondre la pregunta "És correcte l'esquema conceptual?". Aquesta pregunta es pot respondre determinant si l'esquema satisfà certes propietats, com satisfactibilitat, no redundància o executabilitat de les seves operacions.D'altra banda, des de la perspectiva dels requisits que el sistema d'informació ha de satisfer, l'esquema conceptual no només ha de ser correcte sinó que també ha de ser el correcte. Per tal d'assegurar-ho, el dissenyador necessita algun tipus de guia i ajut durant el procés de validació, de manera que pugui entendre què està representant l'esquema exactament i veure si es correspon amb els requisits que s'han de formalitzar.En aquesta tesi presentem una aproximació que millora els resultats de les propostes anteriors adreçades a validar un esquema conceptual en UML, amb les restriccions i operacions formalitzades en OCL. La nostra aproximació permet validar un esquema conceptual tant des del punt de vista de la seva definició com de la seva correspondència amb els requisits.La validació es porta a terme mitjançant un conjunt de proves que s'apliquen a l'esquema, algunes de les quals es generen automàticament mentre que d'altres són definides ad-hoc pel dissenyador. Totes les proves estan formalitzades de tal manera que es poden tractar d'una manera uniforme,independentment de la propietat específica que determinen.La nostra proposta es pot aplicar tant a un esquema conceptual complet com només a la seva part estructural. Quan es pretén validar només la part estructural d'un esquema, oferim un conjunt de condicions que permeten determinar si qualsevol prova de validació que es pugui fer sobrel'esquema acabarà en temps finit. Per aquells casos en els quals aquestes condicions de terminació se satisfan, també proposem un procediment de raonament sobre l'esquema que s'aprofita d'aquest fet i és més eficient que en el cas general. Aquesta aproximació permet validar esquemes conceptuals molt expressius, assegurant completesa i decidibilitat al mateix temps.Per provar la factibilitat de la nostra aproximació, hem implementat el procés de validació complet per a la part estructural d'un esquema. A més, per a la validació d'un esquema conceptual que inclou la definició del comportament, hem implementat el procediment de raonament estenent un mètode existent. / To ensure the quality of an information system, it is essential that the conceptual schema that represents the knowledge about its domain and the functions it has to perform is semantically correct.The correctness of a conceptual schema can be seen from two different perspectives. On the one hand, from the point of view of its definition, determining the correctness of a conceptual schema consists in answering to the question "Is the conceptual schema right?". This can be achieved by determining whether the schema fulfills certain properties, such as satisfiability, non-redundancy or operation executability.On the other hand, from the perspective of the requirements that the information system should satisfy, not only the conceptual schema must be right, but it also must be the right one. To ensure this, the designer must be provided with some kind of help and guidance during the validation process, so that he is able to understand the exact meaning of the schema and see whether it corresponds to the requirements to be formalized.In this thesis we provide an approach which improves the results of previous proposals that address the validation of a UML conceptual schema, with its constraints and operations formalized in OCL. Our approach allows to validate the conceptual schema both from the point of view of its definition and of its correspondence to the requirements.The validation is performed by means of a set of tests that are applied to the schema, including automatically generated tests and ad-hoc tests defined by the designer. All the validation tests are formalized in such a way that they can be treated uniformly, regardless the specific property they allow to test.Our approach can be either applied to a complete conceptual schema or only to its structural part. In case that only the structural part is validated, we provide a set of conditions to determine whether any validation test performed on the schema will terminate. For those cases in which these conditions of termination are satisfied, we also provide a reasoning procedure that takes advantage of this situation and works more efficiently than in the general case. This approach allows the validation of very expressive schemas and ensures completeness and decidability at the same time. To show the feasibility of our approach, we have implemented the complete validation process for the structural part of a conceptual schema.Additionally, for the validation of a conceptual schema with a behavioral part, the reasoning procedure has been implemented as an extension of an existing method.

En esta tesis, presentamos un nuevo enfoque para validar mappings entre esquemas de datos que permite al diseñador comprobar si el mapping satisface o no ciertas propiedades deseables. La respuesta que obtiene el diseñador no se limita a un simple valor booleano, sino que dependiendo del resultado de la comprobación obtendrá un ejemplo/contraejemplo que ilustre ese resultado, o bien se le indicará el conjunto de restricciones de integridad de los esquemas y formulas del mapping responsables de ese resultado. Una de las características principales de nuestro enfoque es que es capaz de tratar una clase muy expresiva de mappings y esquemas relacionales. En particular, nuestro enfoque es capaz de tratar con formulas de mapping consistentes en inclusiones y igualdades de consultas, además de permitir el uso de negaciones y comparaciones aritméticas tanto en las propias formulas del mapping como en las vistas definidas en los esquemas. Nuestro enfoque también permite tratar restricciones de integridad, las cuales pueden estar definidas no solo sobre las tablas sino también sobre las vistas de los esquemas. Dado que razonar sobre este tipo de mappings y esquemas es, desafortunadamente, indecidible, proponemos realizar un test de terminación previo a la validación del mapping. Si el test de terminación da una respuesta positiva, entonces podremos estar seguros de que la posterior comprobación de la propiedad deseable correspondiente terminará. Finalmente, también extendemos nuestro enfoque más allá del caso relacional y lo aplicamos al contexto de mappings entre esquemas XML. / In this thesis, we present a new approach to the validation of mappings between data schemas. It allows the designer to check whether the mapping satisfies certain desirable properties. The feedback that our approach provides to the designer is not only a Boolean answer, but either a (counter)example for the (un)satisfiability of the tested property, or the set of mapping assertions and schema constraints that are responsible for that (un)satisfiability. One of the main characteristics of our approach is that it is able to deal with a very expressive class of relational mapping scenarios; in particular, it is able to deal with mapping assertions in the form of query inclusions and query equalities, and it allows the use of negation and arithmetic comparisons in both the mapping assertions and the views of the schemas; it also allows for integrity constraints, which can be defined not only over the base relations but also in terms of the views. Since reasoning on the class of mapping scenarios that we consider is, unfortunately, undecidable, we propose to perform a termination test as a pre-validation step. If the answer of the test is positive, then checking the corresponding desirable property will terminate. We also go beyond the relational setting and study the application of our approach to the context of mappings between XML schemas.

Over the past few decades, the dominant view by comparative psychologists of analogical reasoning in nonhuman primates was one of dichotomy between apes, including humans, and monkeys: the distinction between the analogical ape and paleological monkey (Thompson & Oden, 2000). Whereas evidence for analogy proper by representation reinterpretation in monkeys is sparse and debated, the gap between that which is analogic and paleologic has been narrowed by the studies presented here. Representation of relational concepts important for analogy proves difficult for rhesus and capuchin monkeys without the ability to rely on a greater amount of perceptual variability, implicating a perceptually-bound predisposition in problem-solving (Chapters 2-3). A shift in attention from perceptual features to abstract concepts for employment in relational matching is again difficult, but not impossible given cognitive incentive in the form of differential outcomes to refocus attention on conceptual properties (Chapter 4). Finally, chimpanzees unlike monkeys appear more apt to reason by analogy, perhaps due to a more default conceptual focus (Chapter 5). Taken together, these studies provide an account for the emergence of analogical reasoning skills throughout the primate lineage in contrast to views regarding analogy a hallmark of human intelligence.

Reasoners who adopt the perspective of another can increase the proportion of logically valid inferences they make (Thompson, Evans, & Handley, 2005). A possible explanation is that shifting perspective promotes analytic reasoning. If this were the case, then shifting perspectives should also reduce the belief-bias effect. Furthermore, strong evidence should be preferred over weak evidence. To test this, 256 participants read twenty-four research descriptions that varied in evidence quality and degree of personal belief content. Participants indicated whether the data supported the researchers hypotheses. Belief bias was reduced when participants evaluated the data from the researchers perspective relative to their own. Evidence strength was an important determining factor in decision-making and it was sensitive to perspective and individual differences.

Even today, with modern medicine and technology, post-operative pain still exists as anmajor issue in modern treatment. A lot of research efforts have been made, in order toimprove pain outcome for patients that has undergone surgery[18][15].Even though physician's and doctors are well educated, the success rate is aboutapproximately 70 %, still there are patients that experience severe pain, after they haveundergone surgery. There could be several reasons to this, for example, lack of methods orsupport should be amongst other things, factors to consider[18].The problem has been to initiate a case-library and eventually create a tool, that could aidphycisians or doctors in their decision making, which hopefully would help in improvingpain outcome. The chosen method to do this, is a modified version of the CBR-algorithm,which is an artificial intelligence algorithm. The CBR-algorithm makes use of features,solution and outcome, and is implemented with a simple prototype, as a similarity function.The are several reasons for why this method was chosen, but using this method makes itpossible to easily create a web-based tool, so it can easily be accessed from anywhere, butstill be effective and work as a support tool.The algorithm works as a self learning mechanism, and is easy to implement, and theinterface has been constructed, allowing the phycisian or doctor to retrieve informationabout patients and run CBR. The desired results are as expected, it's possible to run theCBR, retrieve and compare cases, and get suggestion of solution or action that should beperformed.The conclusion that can be made, is that, although this is a very basic working medicalapplication, still an overall improvement is needed in order to be used as a medicalapplication. It's anyhow a start. For more details and information, check the appendicesplease. / The PainOut Project