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

Cette thèse a pour objectif de contribuer à la compréhension du développement des augmentations de capital réservées aux salariés au sein des entreprises en France. Le premier chapitre définit le concept d’augmentation de capital réservée aux salariés et présente le cadre légal au sein duquel s’inscrivent ces opérations. Nous considérons qu’une augmentation de capital réservée aux salariés est une émission d’actions nouvelles réservées aux salariés non-dirigeants adhérents au plan épargne entreprise ou au plan épargne groupe. Le deuxième chapitre présente, sur la base des théories qui traitent de la politique de financement des entreprises, une revue de la littérature qui s’est intéressée aux opérations d’ouverture du capital des entreprises aux salariés. Le troisième chapitre examine si la prise en compte par les dirigeants des intérêts des actionnaires, des modalités de prise de décision des salariés et de la politique de l’Etat influence la décision des entreprises de recourir à une augmentation de capital réservée aux salariés. Les estimations sont menées à partir d’un échantillon de 110 entreprises françaises non financières appartenant au SBF250 de 1998 à 2007 soit 1 083 firmes-années. Les résultats confirment partiellement les prédictions de la théorie positive de l’agence. Ils montrent une relative influence des intérêts des actionnaires (structure de propriété) et de la politique de l’Etat à l’égard des augmentations de capital réservées aux salariés sur la décision des entreprises de recourir à ce mode de financement. Le quatrième chapitre étudie l’impact du niveau d’asymétrie d’information sur la décision des entreprises de recourir à une augmentation de capital réservée aux salariés sur la base du même échantillon. Les résultats confirment partiellement les prédictions de la théorie du financement hiérarchique. Nous trouvons une influence partielle du niveau d’asymétrie d’information et du déficit de financement sur la décision des entreprises de recourir à cette forme d’augmentation de capital. Enfin, le cinquième chapitre teste l’influence de la volonté des dirigeants de créer et protéger une base de connaissances commune sur la décision des entreprises de recourir à une augmentation de capital réservée aux salariés toujours sur la base de l’échantillon des 110 entreprises. Les résultats confirment partiellement les prédictions des théories cognitives. Nous montrons que l’intensité du capital humain et l’effort d’innovation influencent la décision des entreprises d’émettre des actions exclusivement destinées aux salariés. / This thesis aims to contribute to the understanding of the development of employee equity issue within French companies. The first chapter defines the concept of employee equity issue and presents the relevant legal framework. We consider that an employee equity issue takes place when new shares reserved to non-executive employees acceding to the company savings plan or group savings plan are issued. The second chapter is a literature review of studies of employee stock ownership based on theories that deal with firms’ financing policies. The third chapter examines whether the fact that executives take into account shareholders’ interests, employees’ decision-making modes and the State policy affects companies’ decision to issue shares reserved to employees. We use a sample of 110 non financial French companies belonging to the SBF250 index covering the period 1998 to 2007, totaling 1,083 firms-years. Results partially confirm the predictions of the positive agency theory. They show the relative influence of shareholders’ interests and of the State policy regarding employee equity issue on the decision of companies to resort to this source of financing. The fourth chapter studies the impact of the degree of asymmetric information on companies’ decision to issue shares reserved to employees on the basis of the 110 companies’ sample. Results partially confirm the predictions of pecking order theory. We find that the level of asymmetric information and financing deficit partially influences the decision of companies to resort to employee equity issue. Still on the basis of the 110 companies’ sample, the fifth chapter examines the extent to which companies’ willingness to create and protect a common knowledge base influences their decision to issue shares to employees. Results partially confirm the predictions of cognitive theories (knowledge based view). We show that the intensity of human capital and the innovation effort influence firms’ decision to issue shares destined to employees.

The theme of this diploma thesis is Knowledge Management that is becoming the focus of business companies. The theoretical part of the work is divided into several chapters that discuss the basic principles of Knowledge Management. The aim of this work is to describe the principle of knowledge management and create a basic draft of the knowledge base for the KPMG company. In the introductory part of the work, terms commonly used in knowledge management are explained. Further, the knowledge capital of the company, types of knowledge management and the related knowledge strategies are described. Second half of the theoretical part concerns the responsibilities, tasks and roles in knowledge management. The last chapters of the theoretical part describe the individual phases of knowledge management introduction in a company. The practical part of this thesis is focused at analysis of KPMG company knowledge management and design of a knowledge base that can substantially reduce the time necessary for completion of certain deliverables. The chapter concerns mainly with description of the system architecture of the knowledge base, that the author has designed for the KPMG company.

Cette thèse de doctorat s’intéresse à ce que les enseignants du Québec connaissent de leurs élèves. Plus spécifiquement, ce travail se situe dans le champ de recherche sur les savoirs professionnels des enseignants et, plus largement, celui de la professionnalisation de l’enseignement. L’étude de la connaissance de l’élève, jusqu’ici peu explorée ou peu détaillée, nous permet d’aborder la façon dont les enseignants d’aujourd’hui adaptent et modifient leurs pratiques en fonction des élèves dans leurs classes. Pour ce faire, nous étudions la question de la connaissance de l’élève par les enseignants sous trois dimensions. D’abord, nous tentons de mieux comprendre la nature de ce type de connaissance. Selon Anderson et al. (2001), trois principales connaissances sont à l’œuvre dans le travail professionnel : des connaissances factuelles, des connaissances conceptuelles et des connaissances procédurales. Ainsi, en premier lieu, nous décrivons ces trois types de connaissances. Ensuite, nous interrogeons l’origine de la connaissance de l’élève. Plusieurs auteurs, notamment Shulman (1987 : 2004) dont les travaux sur le Teachers Knowledge Base for Teaching (base de connaissances) furent fondateurs, supportent l’idée que c’est l’expérience pratique qui en est la principale source, dans la mesure où c’est elle qui contribue le plus à l’apprentissage des enseignants. Or, considérant que la formation initiale à l’enseignement transmet également de nombreux savoirs lors de la formation initiale de quatre ans, nous tentons dans un deuxième temps de mieux comprendre d’où provient la connaissance de l’élève. Par la suite, nous nous intéressons à la manière dont est mobilisée la connaissance de l’élève dans les pratiques enseignantes. En effet, nous pensons que notre projet doctoral ne serait pas complet sans essayer de mieux cerner la mobilisation de cette connaissance dans les activités quotidiennes de l’enseignant avec ses élèves. En troisième lieu, nous décrivons les différentes actions de l’enseignant qui sont influencées ou modulées en fonction des connaissances qu’il possède à propos de ses élèves. À l’aide d’entrevues semi-dirigées (n=25) et de quatre groupes de discussion, ainsi que de l’analyse thématique de leurs transcriptions, nous proposons une vision d’ensemble de la connaissance de l’élève qu’ont les enseignants. Les personnes interrogées ont toutes entre 3 et 8 ans d’expérience en enseignement et travaillent principalement dans la grande région de Montréal. Ils sont enseignants au préscolaire-primaire, au secondaire, en éducation physique et à la santé, en adaptation scolaire et à la formation générale des adultes. Nos résultats montrent que les enseignants possèdent différentes connaissances sur leurs élèves, qu’elles varient selon la matière enseignée et le cycle d’enseignement, qu’ils apprennent sur eux principalement sur le terrain et qu’ils utilisent la connaissance de l’élève dans de nombreuses actions et décisions quotidiennement. Au fil de cette recherche doctorale, il est apparu qu’il n’est pas aisé de circonscrire ce type de connaissance et de bien saisir comment l’enseignant la prend en compte dans son enseignement. Cependant, nous pensons que notre étude mène à des éclaircissements importants dans la manière de concevoir les savoirs professionnels des enseignants, a de fortes implications pour la formation initiale à l’enseignement, tout en proposant une compréhension plus juste du travail enseignant avec les élèves. / This doctoral thesis focuses on what teachers in Quebec know about their students. More specifically, we insert this work in the field of research on teachers' professional knowledge and, more broadly, within the concept of the professionalization of teaching. The study of teachers' knowledge about students, which until now has been little studied or not very detailed, allows us to address the way in which today's teachers adapt and modify their practices in relation to the students in their classrooms. To do so, we study teachers' knowledge about students in three dimensions. First, we try to better understand the nature of this type of knowledge. According to Anderson and al. (2001), there are three main types of knowledge: factual knowledge, conceptual knowledge and procedural knowledge. In our theoretical framework, we detail these three types of knowledge. Next, we question the source of knowledge about students. According to several authors, notably Shulman (1987), whose work on the knowledge base for teaching was seminal, supports the idea that it is practical experience that most trains teachers. However, considering that pre-service teacher education also transmits a great deal of knowledge through the four years of the program, we try to gain a better understanding of where the student's knowledge comes from. Then, we look at how knowledge about students is mobilized in teachers » practices. Indeed, we believe that our doctoral project would not be complete without trying to better define the mobilization of this knowledge in the daily activities of the teacher with these students. Therefore, we describe the different actions of the teacher that are influenced or modulated according to the knowledge he has about his students. Based on the thematic analysis of semi-structured interview (n=25) and four focus group, we believe that we can draw a portrait of the knowledge about students. The interviewed teacher’s all have between 3 and 8 years of teaching experience and work mainly in the Greater Montreal area. They are teachers in preschool and elementary school, secondary school, physical and health education (PHE), special education and general adult education. 8 Our results show that teachers have different type of knowledge about their students, that their knowledge varies according to the subject matter and cycle of teaching, that they learn on them through experience and that they use their knowledge about students in many actions and decision every day. At the end, we will see that it is not easy to define this type of knowledge and to understand how teachers take it into account in their teaching. However, we believe that our study leads to important clarifications in the way teachers' professional knowledge is conceived, has strong implications for teacher education, and leads to a more accurate understanding of teachers work with students.

The object of this thesis is proposal and practical implementation of expert system, whose knowledge base will be modeling by fuzzy Petri nets. The proposal is based on knowledge in theoretical analysis of diagnostic expert system and fuzzy Petri nets. This proposal is realised in programming language C#. There are described functions of program and it is made a model consultation with using two different knowledge base.

Purpose of this master thesis is description of base parts of expert system with using Petri nets. Attention is mainly concentrate to knowledge base, way of storing knowledge. Next parts are describing main different between production base knowledge for planning or diagnostic expert system from Petri nets view. In this thesis conditions of using Petri nets and way of interpretation knowledge for inference mechanism in planning and diagnostic expert system are described. Using of high level Petri nets and language describing Petri nets structure and behaviour are demonstrated in next part of this thesis.

This thesis deals with comprehensive proposal of change that will increase the efficiency of information system and its benefits for the company. The proposal is built on the strategic business analysis and identification of key needs and possibilities for improvement of the current state of information system. The emphasis is on practical use and benefits of proposed solutions.

This diploma thesis aims to offer a solution for selected company in the area of information systems. As a basis it uses analysis according to known models, which are being applied to the situation in selected company. Subsequently it aims to address the actual proposal, in which output the author tries to find an optimal solution, that could be used in the company.

This work presents mainly two contributions to Description Logics (DLs) research by means of Formal Concept Analysis (FCA) methods: supporting bottom-up construction of DL knowledge bases, and completing DL knowledge bases. Its contribution to FCA research is on the computational complexity of computing generators of closed sets.

The aim of the research was to explore perceived stigmatization of People with Bipolar Disorder to deepen the knowledge for Glocal Social Work Practice by means of an Interview and Literature Study. The data of the research was gathered from the perspective of people with bipolar diagnosis and a peer within the field, about whether stigma is experienced by people with bipolar disorder and how their resilience factors i.e. strength factors can be supported and enhanced. A qualitative study was conducted with the purpose of expanding the evidence-based knowledge base by exploring how people with bipolar disorder with resilience experienced stigmatization, and the factors that supported their resilience versus inhibited their resilience in their adversity. The research results were analyzed through literature reviews and interviews to gain an in-depth knowledge of the phenomena. The findings indicated that stigma was experienced by the people with bipolar disorder, and was experienced as affecting recovery negatively, creating reluctance to seek help and adding more stress factors. It was mentioned that a healthy social network for support (spouses, relatives, friends andprofessionals) i.e. inclusion along with an active lifestyle, defined goals in life andpurpose, spirituality, nature, faith and hope for a better tomorrow assisted in building and cementing resilience. The findings also indicated that education and anti-stigmainterventions helped in establishing better attitudes revolving around mental illness, especially interventions with personal encounters with people with mental illness.