資料發掘研究重點在於幫助使用者於眾多現存資料中發掘出隱含於其內而先前未知的可能有用資料。目前有三大主要研究派別：(1)類神經網路(2)歸納學習方法論(3)統計方法。由於本研究之研究目的在於加入先前知識於資料發掘過程中，因此選用歸納學習方法論。歸納學習方法其內又可分為樹狀分類法，關聯分析法及概念樹導向歸納學習法，由於採概念樹導向歸納學習法所能處理的資料發掘問題種類較完整，其它二種歸納學習方法均著重於某一特定種類的資料發掘問題處理，因此，本研究針對概念樹導向歸納學習法做研究基礎，探討先前知識的種類及其運用方式，以期能增加資料發掘後的意義性。 　　首先從文獻中了解目前資料發掘領域的研究現況，從而由擴充先前知識的角度切入，利用企業法則、實體層次之一般化、集合化、聚集化等抽象化觀念、延伸之資料字典及經驗法則等先前知識得出更合適的資料以供資料發掘，並對於概念樹導向歸納學習法做適當的修改，提出研究架構。再以假想的學校資料庫，發展出一套雛形系統，驗証本架構的可行性。最後提出進一步的研究建議，以供後續研究參考。 / The research objective of data mining is to help users find previous unknown and maybe usable information from database. There are three ways to do this:(l)neutral network (2)inductive learning (3)statistics. Inductive Learning has three different ways: learning by decision trees, association rules and using concept trees. 　　Because concept trees approach to inductive learning can solve more kinds of problem, the other two ways just can solve one kind of problem, we choose using concept trees to be our foundation of this research. At the same time, we explore and discuss serveral kinds of prior knowledge and their applications. We hope that it can increase the semantics of mining results. 　　This thesis, first surveys previous research in data mining and discuss the prior knowledge that they included. Then, we propose our idea of extending and using prior knowledge including data abstractions (generalization, association and aggregation) in the extended entity-relationship model, bussiness rule, extended data dictionary and heuristics, in order to assist the process of data mining. A prototype is reported to prove our research architecture. Finally, some sugestion are given to future research.

<p>After the acute spell of poliomyelitis, patients commonly suffers from sequelae of weakness. Some of these patients experience new weakness after a time period of stable symptoms.</p><p>The aim of this thesis was to evaluate the possible mechanisms for persistent weakness and development of new weakness in prior polio patients.</p><p>The usefulness of neurophysiologic methods to study prior polio was evaluated. Also two follow up investigations were performed in the attempt to investigate a possible relationship between development of weakness over time and possible failure in neuromuscular function and relation to muscular activity. In another investigation an evaluation of the exceptional finding of a history of paralytic poliomyelitis without neurophysiologic signs of anterior horn cell death was made. The last investigation dealt with reflex pattern in prior polio and it’s relation to weakness and anterior horn cell loss.</p><p>The weakness in prior polio is mainly due to loss of motor neurons with incomplete compensatory mechanisms of reinnervation. The new weakness is mainly due to exaggerated physiological age dependent loss of whole motor neurons, but also fragmentation of the motor unit is likely when these have reached an upper size. Defective neuromuscular transmission and failure in the central drive contribute to a lesser degree to weakness. </p><p>Neurophysiologic method of choice for the assessment of motor unit size and the micro-physiology of the motor unit is Macro EMG.</p><p>Muscular overuse may accelerate motor unit loss over time in prior polio. Extremely large motor units measured with Macro EMG predict new weakness and Macro EMG can be used for prognostication of development of new weakness in prior polio.</p>

<p>This PhD thesis consists of an introduction and five papers, dealing with statistical methods in phylogenetics.</p><p>A phylogenetic tree describes the evolutionary relationships among species assuming that they share a common ancestor and that evolution takes place in a tree like manner. Our aim is to reconstruct the evolutionary relationships from aligned DNA sequences.</p><p>In the first two papers we investigate two measures of confidence for likelihood based methods, bootstrap frequencies with Maximum Likelihood (ML) and Bayesian posterior probabilities. We show that an earlier claimed approximate equivalence between them holds under certain conditions, but not in the current implementations of the two methods.</p><p>In the following two papers the divergence times of the internal nodes are considered. The ML estimate of the divergence time of the root is improved if longer sequences are analyzed or if more taxa are added. We show that the gain in precision is faster with longer sequences than with more taxa. We also show that the algorithm of the software package PATHd8 may give biased estimates if the global molecular clock is violated. A change of the algorithm to obtain unbiased estimates is therefore suggested.</p><p>The last paper deals with non-informative priors when using the Bayesian approach in phylogenetics. The term is not uniquely defined in the literature. We adopt the idea of data translated likelihoods and derive the so called Jeffreys' prior for branch lengths using Jukes Cantor model of evolution.</p>

A major component of the values people place on science and their attitude toward it is their openness to new ideas or overall open-mindedness. An individual’s values and attitudes become integrally connected to their prior knowledge and conceptions regarding science and science content. Sometimes the nature of a natural phenomenon and the scientific explanation for the phenomenon is controversial. A controversial scientific concept is one that evokes emotion and forces individuals to assess the values associated with this content and make assessments of their attitudes toward it. This is especially true during learning. The purpose of this study was to provide evidence on how prior knowledge and existing conceptions are related to open-mindedness when learning science content that is regarded as controversial. The participants for this study consisted of 7 elementary science teachers and 8 secondary science teachers. Data collected for the study included the determination of how individuals assessed and used their prior/existing conceptions when learning controversial science content based on individual interviews, an individual’s level of open-mindedness as measured by the Actively Open-minded Thinking scale (AOT) and determined through the interviews, and the assessment of the change in an individual’s level of knowledge regarding geologic time as measured by the Geoscience Concept Inventory (GCI). The investigation consisted of multiple case studies analyzed within cases and across cases. The teachers’ use of their prior conceptions was determined through the coding of interviews based on the four appropriation modes of Integration, Differentiation, Exchange, and Bridging. Results from the interview data showed that 53% of the teachers differentiated their existing conceptions from new geologic time conceptions, while 47% integrated new conceptions with their prior conceptions. In addition, 40% of the teachers exhibited a bimodal appropriation of their existing conceptions. Bridging and exchange were the secondary appropriation modes observed among bimodal appropriators. No relationships were found between the teachers’ thinking disposition (open-mindedness) and their level of geologic time knowledge, nor where there any relationships found between the teachers’ prior conception appropriation and their geologic time knowledge or their appropriation and thinking disposition.

This study first examines the effectiveness of stealing thunder in increasing the target’s liking for the discloser. The study further inspects liking relative to the amount of information known about the discloser prior to their initial interaction. Additionally, the target’s perception of the negativity of the information revealed is observed. 120 subjects participated in an experiment during which they were either exposed to the negative information via the confederate or the experimenter or were not exposed at all. Results, although interesting, were largely inconsistent with the hypotheses. This could have been due to several factors namely, poor experimental execution and unreliability of measurement. However, stealing thunder, with further testing, has several implications for the current state of the stealing thunder literature and future research.

This PhD thesis consists of an introduction and five papers, dealing with statistical methods in phylogenetics. A phylogenetic tree describes the evolutionary relationships among species assuming that they share a common ancestor and that evolution takes place in a tree like manner. Our aim is to reconstruct the evolutionary relationships from aligned DNA sequences. In the first two papers we investigate two measures of confidence for likelihood based methods, bootstrap frequencies with Maximum Likelihood (ML) and Bayesian posterior probabilities. We show that an earlier claimed approximate equivalence between them holds under certain conditions, but not in the current implementations of the two methods. In the following two papers the divergence times of the internal nodes are considered. The ML estimate of the divergence time of the root is improved if longer sequences are analyzed or if more taxa are added. We show that the gain in precision is faster with longer sequences than with more taxa. We also show that the algorithm of the software package PATHd8 may give biased estimates if the global molecular clock is violated. A change of the algorithm to obtain unbiased estimates is therefore suggested. The last paper deals with non-informative priors when using the Bayesian approach in phylogenetics. The term is not uniquely defined in the literature. We adopt the idea of data translated likelihoods and derive the so called Jeffreys' prior for branch lengths using Jukes Cantor model of evolution.

After the acute spell of poliomyelitis, patients commonly suffers from sequelae of weakness. Some of these patients experience new weakness after a time period of stable symptoms. The aim of this thesis was to evaluate the possible mechanisms for persistent weakness and development of new weakness in prior polio patients. The usefulness of neurophysiologic methods to study prior polio was evaluated. Also two follow up investigations were performed in the attempt to investigate a possible relationship between development of weakness over time and possible failure in neuromuscular function and relation to muscular activity. In another investigation an evaluation of the exceptional finding of a history of paralytic poliomyelitis without neurophysiologic signs of anterior horn cell death was made. The last investigation dealt with reflex pattern in prior polio and it’s relation to weakness and anterior horn cell loss. The weakness in prior polio is mainly due to loss of motor neurons with incomplete compensatory mechanisms of reinnervation. The new weakness is mainly due to exaggerated physiological age dependent loss of whole motor neurons, but also fragmentation of the motor unit is likely when these have reached an upper size. Defective neuromuscular transmission and failure in the central drive contribute to a lesser degree to weakness. Neurophysiologic method of choice for the assessment of motor unit size and the micro-physiology of the motor unit is Macro EMG. Muscular overuse may accelerate motor unit loss over time in prior polio. Extremely large motor units measured with Macro EMG predict new weakness and Macro EMG can be used for prognostication of development of new weakness in prior polio.

Cylinder pressure modeling and heat release analysis are today important and standard tools for engineers and researchers, when developing and tuning new engines. Being able to accurately model and extract information from the cylinder pressure is important for the interpretation and validity of the result. The first part of the thesis treats single-zone cylinder pressure modeling, where the specific heat ratio model constitutes a key part. This model component is therefore investigated more thoroughly. For the purpose of reference, the specific heat ratio is calculated for burned and unburned gases, assuming that the unburned mixture is frozen and that the burned mixture is at chemical equilibrium. Use of the reference model in heat release analysis is too time consuming and therefore a set of simpler models, both existing and newly developed, are compared to the reference model. A two-zone mean temperature model and the Vibe function are used to parameterize the mass fraction burned. The mass fraction burned is used to interpolate the specific heats for the unburned and burned mixture, and to form the specific heat ratio, which renders a cylinder pressure modeling error in the same order as the measurement noise, and fifteen times smaller than the model originally suggested in Gatowski et al. (1984). The computational time is increased with 40 % compared to the original setting, but reduced by a factor 70 compared to precomputed tables from the full equilibrium program. The specific heats for the unburned mixture are captured within 0.2 % by linear functions, and the specific heats for the burned mixture are captured within 1 % by higher-order polynomials for the major operating range of a spark ignited (SI) engine. In the second part, four methods for compression ratio estimation based on cylinder pressure traces are developed and evaluated for both simulated and experimental cycles. Three methods rely upon a model of polytropic compression for the cylinder pressure. It is shown that they give a good estimate of the compression ratio at low compression ratios, although the estimates are biased. A method based on a variable projection algorithm with a logarithmic norm of the cylinder pressure yields the smallest confidence intervals and shortest computational time for these three methods. This method is recommended when computational time is an important issue. The polytropic pressure model lacks information about heat transfer and therefore the estimation bias increases with the compression ratio. The fourth method includes heat transfer, crevice effects, and a commonly used heat release model for firing cycles. This method estimates the compression ratio more accurately in terms of bias and variance. The method is more computationally demanding and thus recommended when estimation accuracy is the most important property. In order to estimate the compression ratio as accurately as possible, motored cycles with as high initial pressure as possible should be used. The objective in part 3 is to develop an estimation tool for heat release analysis that is accurate, systematic and efficient. Two methods that incorporate prior knowledge of the parameter nominal value and uncertainty in a systematic manner are presented and evaluated. Method 1 is based on using a singular value decomposition of the estimated hessian, to reduce the number of estimated parameters one-by-one. Then the suggested number of parameters to use is found as the one minimizing the Akaike final prediction error. Method 2 uses a regularization technique to include the prior knowledge in the criterion function. Method 2 gives more accurate estimates than method 1. For method 2, prior knowledge with individually set parameter uncertainties yields more accurate and robust estimates. Once a choice of parameter uncertainty has been done, no user interaction is needed. Method 2 is then formulated for three different versions, which differ in how they determine how strong the regularization should be. The quickest version is based on ad-hoc tuning and should be used when computational time is important. Another version is more accurate and flexible to changing operating conditions, but is more computationally demanding.

Prior entry refers to the notion that attended stimuli are perceived sooner than unattended stimuli due to a speed up in sensory processing. The century long debate regarding the prior entry phenomenon’s existence has always been grounded in the degree to which the methods applied to the problem allow for cognitive response bias. This thesis continues that trend by applying the synchrony comparison judgment method to the problem of audiovisual prior entry. Experiment 1 put this method into context with two other common psychophysical methods – the temporal order judgment and the synchrony judgment – that have been applied to the prior entry problem. The results of this experiment indicated that the temporal order judgment method was out of step with the other two methods in terms of the parameter estimates typically used to evaluate prior entry. Experiment 2 evaluated and confirmed that a specific response bias helps explain the difference in parameter estimates between the temporal order judgment method and the other two. Experiment 3 evaluated the precision of the synchrony comparison judgment method. The results indicated that the method was precise enough to detect potentially small prior entry effect sizes, and that it afforded the ability to detect those participants with points of subjective synchrony that deviate substantially from zero. Finally, Experiment 4 applied the synchrony comparison judgment method to a prior entry scenario. A prior entry effect was not realized. Overall, this thesis highlights the drawbacks of all previous methods used to evaluate audiovisual perception, including prior entry, and validates the use of the synchrony comparison judgment. Further, due to the resistance of this method to response bias, this result now stands as the most convincing evidence yet against the prior entry phenomenon.

We consider a statistical theory as being invariant when the results of two statisticians' independent data analyses, based upon the same statistical theory and using effectively the same statistical ingredients, are the same. We discuss three aspects of invariant statistical theories. Both model checking and checking for prior-data conflict are assessments of single null hypothesis without any specific alternative hypothesis. Hence, we conduct these assessments using a measure of surprise based on a discrepancy statistic. For the discrete case, it is natural to use the probability of obtaining a data point that is less probable than the observed data. For the continuous case, the natural analog of this is not invariant under equivalent choices of discrepancies. A new method is developed to obtain an invariant assessment. This approach also allows several discrepancies to be combined into one discrepancy via a single P-value. Second, Bayesians developed many noninformative priors that are supposed to contain no information concerning the true parameter value. Any of these are data dependent or improper which can lead to a variety of difficulties. Gelman (2006) introduced the notion of the weak informativity as a comprimise between informative and noninformative priors without a precise definition. We give a precise definition of weak informativity using a measure of prior-data conflict that assesses whether or not a prior places its mass around the parameter values having relatively high likelihood. In particular, we say a prior Pi_2 is weakly informative relative to another prior Pi_1 whenever Pi_2 leads to fewer prior-data conflicts a priori than Pi_1. This leads to a precise quantitative measure of how much less informative a weakly informative prior is. In Bayesian data analysis, highest posterior density inference is a commonly used method. This approach is not invariant to the choice of dominating measure or reparametrizations. We explore properties of relative surprise inferences suggested by Evans (1997). Relative surprise inferences which compare the belief changes from a priori to a posteriori are invariant under reparametrizations. We mainly focus on the connection of relative surprise inferences to classical Bayesian decision theory as well as important optimalities.