Ramón P. Otero

Discrete Event Simulation in an Environment for Temporal Expert Systems

The relationship between Generalized Magnitudes (a Temporal Reasoning Scheme) and Discrete Event Systems Specifications is examined, revisiting a previous work of translation between both formalisms. As a result of this study, the Generalized Magnitudes Scheme is extended by adding autonomous activation — the system determines the next instant in which it must be re-evaluated. This new feature allows using the Generalized Magnitudes for representing and simulating Discrete Events models directly, which contributes several interesting representational properties. Finally, the computing process of the next activation instant is described.

On the handling of time in intelligent monitoring of CCU patients

In this article we addres the need of handling uncertainty and imprecision when considering time in patient monitoring proeses. Also, we conclude that an adequate tool for the generaliztion of the temporal structures and their manipulation when handling these concepts is the fuzy theory.

Integrating medical expert systems, patient data-bases and user interfaces

Expert system applications in the clinical domain have not been very popular for lack of an adequate integration with other applications used in clinical environments. In the last few years, there is a growing trend towards the introduction of knowledge based systems as systems embedded in conventional applications. In this paper we propose an integration strategy of an expert system in oncology therapy with a clinical history data base and a user interface adapted to the needs of the medical environment. Our objective has been to design a system that is easy to use and provides all functions needed by the medical staff. The final system has consisted in first integrating three development tools and then using them in order to construct the complete application. The result is a global tool for the development of clinical information systems with embedded intelligent modules.

STIMS-MEDTOOL: Integration of Expert Systems with Systems Modelling and Simulation

A feasibility study concerning the possibility of integrating Medtool (an expert system shell) with STIMS (a object-oriented modelling and simulation environment) is presented. The relationship between the formalisms implemented by the two environments has resulted in the possibility to relate one formalism to each other. The generalized magnitudes formalism on which Medtool is based, appears as a formalism that may be considered for systems modelling and simulation introducing new Artificial Intelligence features into Computer Aided Systems Theory. Finally, having associated the concepts in one formalism to the concepts in the other, the integration of the two shells can be accomplished in an easier fashion and with more meaning.

Design and integration of a graphic interface for an expert system in oncology

We describe a graphic user interface for an expert system in oncology. The main objectives of our work has been to facilitate the adaptation of the system to different clinical environments and potentiate the factors which more directly determine the acceptance of the system by its users. We present the design principles derived from the features of the clinical domain chosen and from the objectives of the system. These principles are reflected on the design of the screen and of the interaction and in the style of integration of the interface with the other components of the system. Underlying the application we describe is a graphic user interface management system which provides facilities for the fast prototyping and integration of interfaces. We describe here those features of this tool which make the practical application of the design principles we consider possible.

NETTOOL: A Hybrid Connectionist-Symbolic Development Environment

In this work we present an environment, NETTOOL, for the development of hybrid connectionist-symbolic systems, in which the connectionist representation is based on the same knowledge representation model as that of symbolic systems. The hybridation between the knowledge elements is local, the connectionist training algorithm is also localized in each element of the network so that the knowledge required for the learning process is a part of it. There is also the possibility of including capabilities for inferential level processing in the elements of the network.

Rapid Prototyping of Medical Graphic Interfaces

Rapid prototyping is an adequate methodology for the development of window based graphic interfaces because it allows an effective integration of experts in human factors and potential users in the process of the production of the interaction software. We have implemented an environment for the rapid prototyping of medical graphic interfaces based on the characteristic architecture of knowledge based systems. It provides a specification language for the declarative representation of the elementary dialogue components, including the visual aspect, behavior and content of the windows. This representation is directly executable and permits an incremental approach to the final interface. The environment provides a universal control mechanism and facilities for the integration of the interface with relational data bases and expert systems. The paper present a general description of our system and details of the method for the representation of the interaction.

On Knowledge Based Systems in CCU's: Monitoring and Patients Follow-up

This paper sketches the design methodology, knowledge representation and inferencing techniques and development tools used in our group by the abridged description of two systems, SUTII, and AMIS, and a tool, MEDTOOL. SUTIL is a monitoring system for the main biosignals of interest in the CCU context, which are the electrocardiogram (ECG) and the cardiovascular pressures. AMIS is a therapy adviser for patients follow-up oriented towards Acute Myocardial Infarction. AMIS and MEDTOOL can run on any PC-AT compatible under MS-DOS and SUN Workstation under UNIX. The hardware architecture of SUTIL consists of two main blocks: an IBM PC compatible computer and a real time parallel processor based the VME bus and the MC 68000 microprocessor. We are currently evaluating AMIS and SUTIL at the Hospital General de Galicia (CCU), Santiago (Spain).

Towards a Computational Theory of Systems. Some Cases Study

Some preliminary developments toward a computational theory of systems has been presented with the following points.

Parallelization of Connectionist Models Based on a Symbolic Formalism

In this paper we study the parallelization of the inference process for connectionist models. We use a symbolic formalism for the representation of the connectionist models. With this translation, the training mechanism is local in the elements of the network, the computing power is improved in the network nodes and a local hybridization with symbolic parts is achieved. The inference in the final knowledge network can be parallelized, whether the knowledge corresponds to a symbolic module, a connectionist model or a hybrid connectionist-symbolic module. Besides, the concurrency for knowledge networks corresponding to connectionist models is presented for the phases of processing and training. The parallelization is studied for a multiprocessor architecture with shared memory.