Thesis (M.H.A.)--University of Michigan, 1975.

Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited / The goal of this study is to provide a single source of data that enables the selection of an appropriate voice recognition (VR) application for a decision support system (DSS) as well as for other computer applications. A brief background of both voice recognition systems and decision supports systems is provided with special emphasis given to the dialog component of DSS. The categories of voice recognition discussed are human factors, environmental factors, situational factors, quantitative factors, training factors, host computer factors, and experiments and research. Each of these areas of voice recognition is individually analyzed, and specific references to applicable literature are included. This study also includes appendices that contain: a glossary (including definitions) of phrases specific to both decision support system and voice recognition systems, keywords applicable to this study, an annotated bibliography (alphabetically and by specific topics) of current VR systems literature containing over 200 references, an index of publishers, a complete listing of current commercially available VR systems. / http://archive.org/details/applicationofvoi00drak / Lieutenant, United States Navy

The paradigm of Decision Support Systems (DSS) is to support decision-making, while an Expert System’s (ES) major objective is to provide expert advice in specialised situations. Knowledge-Based DSS (KB-DSS), also called Intelligent Decision Support Systems (IDSS), integrate traditional DSS with the advances of ES. A KB-DSS’ knowledge base usually contains knowledge expressed by an expert and captured by a knowledge engineer. The indirect transfer between the domain expert and the knowledge base through a knowledge engineer may lead to a long and inefficient knowledge acquisition process. This thesis compares 11 DSS packages in search of a (KB-) DSS generator where domain experts can specify and maintain a Specific Decision Support System (SDSS) to assist users in making decisions. The proposed (KB-) DSS-generator is tested with a university and study-program prototype. Since course and study plan programs change intermittently, the (KB-) DSS’ knowledge base enables domain experts to set and maintain their course and study plan rules without the assistance of a knowledge engineer. Criteria are set to govern the (KB-) DSS generator search process. Example knowledge base rules are inspected to determine if domain experts will be able to maintain a set of production rules used in a student registration advice system. By developing a prototype and inspecting knowledge base rules, it was found that domain experts would be able to maintain their knowledge in the decentralised knowledge base, on condition that the objects and attributes used in the rule base were first specified by a builder/programmer. / Dissertation (MSc Computer Science)--University of Pretoria, 2005. / Computer Science / unrestricted

Telenursing is a highly specialized area of nursing practice that has evolved in response to the advent of new technologies within the delivery of health care. Telenursing has been defined as “the use of communications and information technology [ICT’s] to deliver health and health care services and information over large and small distances (CRNBC, 2016). Telenurses use health information systems (HIS) in the form of a Clinical Decision Support System (CDSS) to assist callers with their health related concerns on a 24/7 basis. As decision making is an integral part of telenurse practice, particularly because they are using a CDSS while assessing the caller over the phone, it was important to understand the factors that influence the decision making process so as to better support telenurse practice in terms of education as well as other supports. This thesis identified those factors and used Rasmussen’s Decision Ladder as a model in order to provide a framework for telenursing. It was found that there were several factors identified that influenced how telenurses made decisions while using a CDSS. Additionally, the decision ladder was validated as a framework to describe telenurse practice. / Graduate

With the rising cost of health care, the debate about where each dollar is spent is putting increasing pressure on decision makers. Consequently, one of the biggest challenges of providing health care to rural populations, specifically, is determining which communities should receive funding to address access to services. Defining rurality in the context of health care is a challenge that governments and health care providers have struggled with for years. Each stakeholder in Canada’s health care system has developed different criteria for defining rurality to inform policy. Currently there is a gap in academic research exploring the benefits of applying Geographic Information Systems (GIS) in rural health care policy and program decision support. GIS can provide insight into rural health care accessibility by modeling and measuring the way patients seek medical treatment. This thesis seeks to explore usability mapping issues and identify how policy makers perceive rurality when presented with information displayed on a map. Usability in this study influenced the perceived usefulness of the mapping tool. Overall study participants felt that mapping tools should be used as a form of decision support in rural health policy issues. Mapping was seen as tool to obtain quicker consensus among decision makers, to provide more context to rural issues in the study scenario, and used as a platform which could potentially assist in the identification of new criteria used to define rural health policy. In terms of usability, system usability design principles play a key role in the success and adoption of mapping tools among rural health policy makers. The study found that Google Earth’s software design violated Nielsen’s usability design principles in the following categories: Help and Documentation, User Control and Freedom, and Navigation. Despite these usability issues, participants found the mapping tool to have three main advantages over the paper-based decision support, the tool allowed them to: 1) gain a more complete picture of the surrounding communities; 2) understand the proximity of health services; and 3) gain greater awareness of the geography of the area. / Graduate

Today it is more a rule than an exception that software systems have a lifecycle of more than several years. Hence, software evolution is inevitable. During the life span of a software system the domain in which the system is working evolves and changes. This causes changes to the software system, and the software system may also be evolved to satisfy new markets. The ability to evolve gracefully, and thus the long-term success of a software system, is to a large extent governed by its software architecture and the ability of the software architecture to fulfil requirements on quality attributes and to adapt to evolving requirements. In this thesis we study evolution of software architectures and what can be done to support this evolution. We focus on three particular aspects of evolution support: how to ensure that the correct blend of quality attributes is met (architecture selection), the technical means available for supporting changes in the software system (variability), and what types of changes that are likely to occur during evolution (categories of evolution). We introduce a method for architecture evaluation and selection that focus on ensuring that the selected software architecture is the architecture candidate with the most potential for fulfilling a particular blend of quality attributes. The method is based on quantification of expert opinions and focused discussions where these expert opinions differ. The architecture evaluation and selection method is studied in both an academic and in an industry setting. We also introduce a taxonomy of techniques for realising variability in a software system and study how the techniques in this taxonomy are applied in different evolution situations. The taxonomy is based on several industry case studies. Two industry cases are studied in further detail and the evolution of these systems are followed over a number of releases and generations. During this evolution it is shown how variability mechanisms are used to also support evolution, and that there are typical cases of evolution that a software system can be prepared to cope with. The contribution of this thesis is that it increases the understanding of how evolution occurs in a software system, how to create software that is flexible enough to support evolution and how to evaluate and select a software architecture that meets a particular blend of quality attributes. Together this ensures that a software system is based on a software architecture that fits the current quality requirements and that is flexible in the right places so that it is able to evolve gracefully.

published_or_final_version / Urban Planning and Environmental Management / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / abstract / Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering / Master / Master of Philosophy

<p>Flexibility is the keyword when preparing for the uncertainfuture tasks for the civilian and military defence. Supporttools relying on general principles will greatlyfacilitateflexible co-ordination and co-operation between differentcivilian and military organizations, and also between differentcommand levels. Further motivations for general solutionsinclude reduced costs for technical development and training,as well as faster and more informed decisionmaking. Mosttechnical systems that support military activities are howeverdesigned with specific work tasks in mind, and are consequentlyrather inflexible. There are large differences between forinstance fire fighting, disaster relief, calculating missiletrajectories, and navigating large battle-ships. Still, thereought to be much in common in the work of managing thesevarious tasks. We use the term<i>Command and Control</i>(C2) to capture these commonfeatures in management of civilian and military, rescue anddefence operations.</p><p>Consequently, this thesis describes a top-down approach tosupport systems for decision-making in the context of C2, as acomplement to the prevailing bottom-up approaches. DISCCO(Decision Support for Command and Control) is a set ofnetwork-based services including<i>Command Support</i>helping commanders in the human,cooperative and continuous process of evolving, evaluating, andexecuting solutions to their tasks. The command tools providethe means to formulate and visualize tasks, plans, andassessments, but also the means to visualize decisions on thedynamic design of organization. Also included in DISCCO is<i>Decision Support</i>, which, based on AI and simulationtechniques, improve the human process by integrating automaticand semiautomatic generation and evaluation of plans. The toolsprovided by DISCCO interact with a<i>Common Situation Model</i>capturing the recursive structureof the situation, including the status, the dynamicorganization, and the intentions, of own, allied, neutral, andhostile resources. Hence, DISCCOprovides a more comprehensivesituation description than has previously been possible toachieve.</p><p>DISCCO shows generic features since it is designed tosupport a decisionmaking process abstracted from the actualkinds and details of the tasks that are solved. Thus it will beuseful through all phases of the operation, through all commandlevels, and through all the different organizations andactivities that are involved.</p><p><b>Keywords:</b>Command and Control, Management, DecisionSupport, Data Fusion, Information Fusion, Situation Awareness,Network-Based Defence, Ontology.</p>

Effective resource management requires tools and decision aides to help determine users' needs and appropriate assignment. The goal of this research was to design, implement, and test technological tools that, even in a dynamic environment, effectively support the matching of users and resources. The context of the investigation is the Information Center, the structure used to manage and control the computing resources demanded by end users. The major contributions of the research lie in two areas: (1) the development and use of a knowledge acquisition called Resource Attribute Charts (RAC), which allow for the structured definition of the resources managed by the IC, and (2) the design, implementation, validation, and verification of the transportability of Information Center Expert, a system that supports the activities of the IC personnel. Prototyping, the system development methodology commonly used in software engineering, was used to design the general architecture of the knowledge acquisition tools, the knowledge maintenance tool, and the expert system itself. The knowledge acquisition tools, RAC, were used to build the knowledge base of ICE (Information Center Expert). ICE was installed at two corporate sites, its software recommendations were validated, and its transportability from one location to another was verified experimentally. The viability of a rule-based consultation system as a mechanism for bringing together knowledge about users, problems, and resources for the purpose of effective resource management was demonstrated.