Thesis (M.S.)--Oregon State University, 2008. / Printout. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 62-64). Also available on the World Wide Web.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2006. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 155-163).

<p>Many artificial intelligence applications suffer severely from a bottleneck in acquiring domain information necessary to go beyond toy hand-built demonstrations to realistic applications. This project examines one approach to reducing that bottleneck by using automated and semi-automated techniques to analyze published domain-relevant material. A taxonomy of terms related to computers with an emphasis on microprocessors is developed and presented. The methods used are experimental and not yet fully validated, but are potentially of great use for extracting useful domain information from published material. Preliminary validation by comparison with a published taxonomy shows that these methods have produced a taxonomy which is better suited for the immediate use of this taxonomy.</p> / Master of Science

The purpose of this qualitative research is to gain a deeper understanding of the knowledge attributes that influence how South African business leaders get things done. Knowledge is described as the social and emotional skills that allow leaders to enact behaviours. Therefore the components of the knowledge necessary for leaders to get things done are based on an understanding of their skills (learned capacity) and their abilities (the natural talents). The research assessed the relative importance of knowledge and the relationship with personal traits and leadership behaviour through fifteen indepth interviews. Knowledge was seen as relatively less important than personal traits and behaviours although it provides a crucial link between these leadership attributes. The importance of key knowledge attributes, including an awareness of the mechanisms to acquire knowledge, enable emerging leaders to be more effective and achieve sustained results. Therefore, the value of knowledge may be seen as the process of acquiring the body of information, concepts and principles required to lead and get things done. Copyright / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

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The software tool described in this thesis demonstrates a practical application of prototype theory to the representation of world or encyclopedic knowledge. The tool is designed to extract such knowledge from dictionary entries and to represent it in a network of frames. An application needing encyclopedic knowledge would rely on some separate utility program to draw information from the frames, translating frame data as necessary for s own use. The encyclopedic knowledge that can be extracted from a dictionary extends over an extremely wide range of topics, but it is very shallow, so the knowledge base of any final application would require further enrichment from other sources. However, a substantial part of the deficit might be overcome through similar automatic processing of more dictionaries and other published sources of encyclopedic knowledge. / Master of Science

Ecuadorian farmers do not play the investment game (Berg 1995) the same with community farmers as they do with agricultural technicians. Women exhibit a preference for trust in agricultural technicians (vertical trust). Using experimental and survey data from 191 farmers we examine factors associated with 1) farmer trust in community farmers, 2) farmer trust in agricultural technicians, and 3) differences between levels of trust in agricultural technicians and community farmers. Then we explore how our measures of trust correlate with pesticide knowledge and purchase of pesticide safety equipment; in addition, we consider how our measures of trust correlate with accessing bank loans. Farmers who place more trust in community farmers score lower on our pesticide knowledge exam and they are less likely to adopt our pesticide safety equipment technology. We find that farmers who exhibit a preference for trusting agricultural technicians score higher on our pesticide knowledge exam; they are also more likely to report having accessed a bank loan. / Master of Science

Title from PDF of title page. / Document formatted into pages; contains 42 pages. / Thesis (M.S.C.S.)--University of South Florida, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references. / Text (Electronic thesis) in PDF format. / ABSTRACT: When medical researchers test a new treatment procedure, they recruit patients with appropriate health problems and medical histories. An experiment with a new procedure is called a clinical trial. The selection of patients for clinical trials has traditionally been a labor-intensive task, which involves matching of medical records with a list of eligibility criteria. A recent project at the University of South Florida has been aimed at the automation of this task. The project has involved the development of an expert system that selects matching clinical trials for each patient. / If a patient's data are not sufficient for choosing a trial, the system suggests additional medical tests. We report the work on the representation and entry of the related selection criteria and medical tests. We first explain the structureof the system's knowledge base, which describes clinical trials and criteria for selecting patients. We then present an interface that enables a clinician to add new trials and selection criteria without the help of a programmer. Experiments show that the addition of a new clinical trial takes ten to twenty minutes, and that novice users learn the full functionality of the interface in about an hour. / System requirements: World Wide Web browser and PDF reader. / Mode of access: World Wide Web.

This thesis contends that communities of practice (CoPs) are an effective instrument for supporting collaborative activities in science-based small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that often have no formal strategy for knowledge acquisition and innovation. A review of the existing body of knowledge has indicated that this matter has not been the subject of thorough, in-depth research; and that this issue is important, given the relatively high level of efficacy that has been afforded to the role of CoPs in the innovation processes of large organizations. Indeed, the original communities of practice model had little to say about innovation per se; however, more recent theorizations have shown that CoPs can contribute to organizational innovation. This research makes a number of contributions to our understanding of CoPs as an enabler of knowledge acquisition and innovation: (i) theoretical: recontextualizing CoPs and demonstrating their applicability in science-based SMEs; (ii) methodological: extending the use of thematic template analysis; and (iii) applied: through the development of a contextualized framework for constructing CoPs in science-based SMEs. An exploratory case study of science-based SMEs was conducted using thematic template analysis. The study employed critical case sampling, a technique that focuses on selecting cases on the basis that they make a point dramatically or because, as in this instance, they are important in relation to the research questions In depth interviews were conducted with 25 individuals employed in technical (i.e. scientists and engineers) and commercial roles (i.e. operations, finance and purchasing). Although there was no evidence of managed CoPs, a range of emergent/informal and cultivated CoPs were leveraged for a variety of purposes, including facilitating knowledge acquisition, enhancing absorptive capacity, and improving the firm’s ability to generate innovative solutions. Apprentice-based CoPs emerged that supported individual learning, and both intra and inter-organizational CoPs emerged to support a range of radical and incremental innovation activities. Social capital was leveraged in CoPs, generating trust and reciprocity between SMEs and customer organizations, thus enhancing knowledge-sharing and innovative potential. Finally, this research confirms that CoPs are the privileged locus for knowledge acquisition and innovation in science-based SMEs.