A decision support system (DSS) for nurse scheduling in hospitals is developed and implemented on microcomputer. The system includes algorithms and databases for developing weekly work and shift patterns and combining these into working schedules for nurses for a specified time horizon, and interface modules for the user to interact with the system. The system combines heuristic modeling with decision analysis concepts to generate nurse schedules. A heuristic best-first search technique is used in implementing pattern generation and screening process to satisfy both nurses and hospital's objectives. Emphasis in the design of the DSS has been on computational efficiency and user acceptability. The system is flexible so that it can be implemented in different hospital environments, and incorporates a wide range of hospital and nurses' objectives. / Graduation date: 1992

In the military domain, situation awareness (SA) is an important concept. The precise definition is elusive - generally it is accepted to mean 'knowing what is going on'. The presumption is that in battles, all combat personnel must have SA, without which they may face defeat or make serious mistakes with potentially dire consequences. The dynamic environment in which they operate is far from favourable for gaining and maintaining SA. Commanders and soldiers are under pressure to make decisions even though the situation is unclear. / The goal of the research project reported in this thesis is to adapt an existing measure of SA for use in the land force domain, and to investigate the validity of the measure. An SA metric provides a powerful tool in SA research. It has the capacity to provide rigour in studies examining the impact of technology insertion on SA. / SAGAT (Situation Awareness Global Assessment Technique)*, [Endsley, M. R. (1995). Measurement of Situation Awareness in Dynamic Systems. Human Factors, 37 (1), 65-84.] was developed to provide objective measures of SA for computer simulation studies in the aviation domain. In order to apply SAGAT in the field environment in the land domain, the technique had to be modified. This resulted in a new method called the Direct Questioning Technique (DQT). The DQT followed the principles of SAGAT, but was different in its implementation. / The DQT was applied in three studies to measure SA in the land force. The method was successively refined over the three studies. The first dealt with a Command Post exercise in which the SA of a command team was measured. It served as a pilot to investigate the strengths and weaknesses of the method. In the second study, the SA of members of an infantry section was measured in a field setting to investigate the effects of intra-section radios on SA. The environment in which the study was conducted demanded further modification of the method. The third study, also conducted in the field, involved SA measures of members of the Ground-Based Air Defence Regiment. In this case the impact of digital display on SA was investigated. / SAGAT has been demonstrated to have a high degree of sensitivity, reliability and validity in other domains. The three studies reported in the thesis produced results that were entirely consistent with those that would be expected from the SA theory and model, showing that the DQT has criterion validity. Content validity was ensured through a rigorous process. The environment in which it was implemented conferred face validity. / It will be shown that the DQT is a sound method for providing objective measures of SA in the land domain. The method produces rich data, the analysis of which may provide insights about the operator's SA in terms of each SA level (perception, comprehension and prediction), and category (friendly or enemy force and terrain). The DQT is not difficult to implement and does not require special equipment. A disadvantage is that it is effort intensive, including the requirement for a Subject Matter Expert to support the researcher during the activities. / Thesis (MEng(ComputerSystemsEng))--University of South Australia, 2006.

The thesis presents research on decision-making in the Tactical Air Combat Environment (TACE). Decision-making occurs often in situations such as business, marketing, medicine and management. In some cases the decision can be quickly made if we have sufficient information or a clear need for the work. In complex cases involving uncertain information, the decision making process is hard and ambiguous. It is difficult to choose or to provide good solutions in areas such as medical treatment, business management or in the battlefield. The model of the tactical air combat environment decision support system is used as the trial model for the Decision Support System (DSS) for the Airborne Early Warning Command and Control (AEW&C). This system is currently designed and developed in the Air Operation Department of the Defence Science Technology Organisation (DSTO) in Australia. The cognitive work analysis (CWA) theory has been investigated and developed in recent years to analyse and develop the human system interaction process to support decision making in TACE. The situation Awareness (SA) theory is also investigated. The thesis introduces theories of decision making and the intelligent techniques that can support the decision making process. Fuzzy Logic or Expert Systems will be used to implement the heuristic knowledge. The training process derived from experience or object recognition will be good useful for the decision making process. Neural network using the back propagatino learning algorithm and its optimisation approaches will be used for this task. Usually a decision support system is made to solve problems where multi-criteria decision are involved. The database is the vital part of the decision support which contains the information or data used in the decision making process. This is where engineers and scientists use several heuristics and soft computing techinques such as learning, search and modelling of imprecise information to obtain optimal decisions. The thesis proposes hybrid intelligent techniques using a fuzzy genetic system and a fuzzy neural system to obtain decision rules automatically. The fuzzy inference system is used to process the imprecise information. Some simulation results demonstrate the difficulties in deciding the optimal quantity of membership functions; shape and parameters are also given. The last part of the thesis explicates a combination of unsupervised learning techniques for clustering the data that is proposed in order to develop decision regions for the fuzzy c mean clustering and self organisation map. It uses a feed forward neural network to classify the decision regions accurately. The clustered data is used for the inputs to the multi-layered feed forward neural network, which is trained using several higher order learning paradigms. Experimental results obtained show the proposed method is efficient. / Thesis (PhDElectronicEngineering)--University of South Australia, 2004

No description available.

This study examines the impact of organisational culture and GSS (Group Support Systems) on small group decision-making as measured by group decision outcomes. Laboratory experiments were designed to investigate how two types of groups selected on the basis of having apparently different organisational cultures make decisions on a preference task, in situations where they were given one of two different means of support (face-to-face GSS support or manually structured support) to aid their decision-making. Organisational culture and GSS are the independent variables, whilst the dependent outcome variables were perceived decision quality, decision process satisfaction, decision satisfaction, unified commitment, collaborative climate, and group cohesiveness. The research results showed that manually-supported groups, those who were given simple physical decision-support aids and worked face-to-face, had higher perceived decision quality and decision process satisfaction but no significant differences in unified commitment, decision satisfaction, collaborative climate, and group cohesiveness were found when compared to face-to-face GSS???supported groups who were given electronic aids. One of the two groups drawn from environments where organisational culture was expected to be quite different, that is the Kensington Campus group had higher perceived decision quality, decision process satisfaction, unified commitment, and group cohesiveness but no significant differences in decision satisfaction and collaborative climate when compared with groups drawn from a campus of the same university, ADFA (Australian Defence Force Academy) Campus, one which is attended only by military students. Whilst compared with those of manually structured support on group outcomes, the impacts of GSS on group outcomes weakened when they performed a preference task, organisational culture was found to have a significant impact on group outcomes when both face-to-face GSS and manual settings were considered.

The thesis presents research on decision-making in the Tactical Air Combat Environment (TACE). Decision-making occurs often in situations such as business, marketing, medicine and management. In some cases the decision can be quickly made if we have sufficient information or a clear need for the work. In complex cases involving uncertain information, the decision making process is hard and ambiguous. It is difficult to choose or to provide good solutions in areas such as medical treatment, business management or in the battlefield. The model of the tactical air combat environment decision support system is used as the trial model for the Decision Support System (DSS) for the Airborne Early Warning Command and Control (AEW&C). This system is currently designed and developed in the Air Operation Department of the Defence Science Technology Organisation (DSTO) in Australia. The cognitive work analysis (CWA) theory has been investigated and developed in recent years to analyse and develop the human system interaction process to support decision making in TACE. The situation Awareness (SA) theory is also investigated. The thesis introduces theories of decision making and the intelligent techniques that can support the decision making process. Fuzzy Logic or Expert Systems will be used to implement the heuristic knowledge. The training process derived from experience or object recognition will be good useful for the decision making process. Neural network using the back propagatino learning algorithm and its optimisation approaches will be used for this task. Usually a decision support system is made to solve problems where multi-criteria decision are involved. The database is the vital part of the decision support which contains the information or data used in the decision making process. This is where engineers and scientists use several heuristics and soft computing techinques such as learning, search and modelling of imprecise information to obtain optimal decisions. The thesis proposes hybrid intelligent techniques using a fuzzy genetic system and a fuzzy neural system to obtain decision rules automatically. The fuzzy inference system is used to process the imprecise information. Some simulation results demonstrate the difficulties in deciding the optimal quantity of membership functions; shape and parameters are also given. The last part of the thesis explicates a combination of unsupervised learning techniques for clustering the data that is proposed in order to develop decision regions for the fuzzy c mean clustering and self organisation map. It uses a feed forward neural network to classify the decision regions accurately. The clustered data is used for the inputs to the multi-layered feed forward neural network, which is trained using several higher order learning paradigms. Experimental results obtained show the proposed method is efficient. / Thesis (PhDElectronicEngineering)--University of South Australia, 2004

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Oregon State University, 2008. / Printout. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 146-150). Also available on the World Wide Web.

Thesis (M.S.)--Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 1992. / Vita. Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 112-116). Also available via the Internet.

Thesis (M. Phil.)--University of Hong Kong, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 129-136) Also available in print.

Thesis (M.C.S.)--Carleton University, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 83-86). Also available in electronic format on the Internet.