Samuel Túnez

An Intelligent System for Therapy Control in a Distributed Organization

This paper describes a decision-making system for phytosanitary control advicing. The solution adopted consists of developing a Web-accessible information system based on a multi-agent architecture, integrating knowledge-based techniques and classical information analysis and management techniques. CommonKADS was used for the design of some knowledge-based agents. Internet implementation and integration was done in a knowledge-based system implementation environment, with programs executed on the Web server.

AN EXPERTISE MODEL FOR THERAPY PLANNING USING ABDUCTIVE REASONING

Generic reasoning models facilitate the construction of knowledge-based systems for solving complex problems, such as therapy planning in an agricultural context. The basic features of these models are problem-solving methods, which are proposed to carry out the tasks ordinarily done by experts in solving a specific problem. This article describes an expertise model in the domain of plant health, which was obtained applying the CommonKADS methodology. The most important result is the abductive method proposed for supplying a solution to treatment problems in domains where there is no protocol for therapy planning tasks. The description of the method is based on the algebraic formulation of a domain-independent general treatment. Therefore, the abductive method proposed is sufficiently generalized to be applied to different domains.

Defining the semantics of rule-based Web applications through model-driven development

Defining the semantics of rule-based Web applications through model-driven development Rule languages and inference engines incorporate reasoning capabilities to Web information systems. This paper presents an approach for the specification and development of Web applications performing the usual functionalities of data management and incorporating a rule engine for reasoning capabilities. The proposed approach is based on the definition of a high-level representation of the semantics of rule-based applications through a formalism for conceptual modeling combining lightweight ontologies and production rules. These models are used as the source for a model-driven method that applies several transformations to conceptual models generating the rule-based Web application code in an automatic process. As a result, the rule-based Web application embeds a rule engine suitable for deducing information by applying an inference process. The structure of the information managed by the Web application is based on ontology classes, whereas the logical expressions applied in reasoning are obtained from production rules of the model. A rule-based Web application has been developed and evaluated using a supporting tool that implements the ideas presented in this paper.

Milestones in Software Engineering and Knowledge Engineering History: A Comparative Review

We present a review of the historical evolution of software engineering, intertwining it with the history of knowledge engineering because “those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” This retrospective represents a further step forward to understanding the current state of both types of engineerings; history has also positive experiences; some of them we would like to remember and to repeat. Two types of engineerings had parallel and divergent evolutions but following a similar pattern. We also define a set of milestones that represent a convergence or divergence of the software development methodologies. These milestones do not appear at the same time in software engineering and knowledge engineering, so lessons learned in one discipline can help in the evolution of the other one.

InSCo-Gen: A MDD Tool for Web Rule-Based Applications

Rules and ontologies are widely used in software development since they provide semantic web applications with meaning and reasoning features. This demonstration paper presents InSCo-Gen , a Model-Driven Development (MDD) tool for Web rule-based applications, which constructs a functional Web architecture integrating a rule engine for reasoning tasks. Development process is based on conceptual models composed of ontologies and production rules. These models are the source for the MDD process, which automatically generates implementation of the Web application.

Knowledge Model of a Therapy Administration Task – Applied to an Agricultural Domain

This work presents an application of the CommonKADS methodology to define of a knowledge model for a therapy admini- stration task, reusing CommonKADS task templates. A knowledge- based system for solving the problem of phytosanitary strategy selec- tion in greenhouses has been constructed using this knowledge model. As a result, we have defined a therapy administration task template that can be reused to construct additional knowledge models for other knowledge-based systems.

A proposal for Projekt Management Using CommonKADS

This work describes a proposal for software lifecycle and project management when developing knowledge based systems using CommonKADS methodology. To build this proposal, an analysis of the similarities between software engineering and knowledge engineering was made. As a result, the anchor point milestones and the invariant definitions from the spiral model lifecycle for software development have been translated to CommonKADS methodology. This proposal is being applied to a project in order to develop a phytosanitary advisor system used by farmers in greenhouse crops.

Integration of development methodologies for the building of knowledge intensive multiagent systems

We describe a proposal for the development of multiagent systems composed by knowledge intensive and nonintensive agents. A software process framework is proposed that integrates a methodology oriented to the development of knowledge based systems, CommonKADS, with some software engineering techniques, those of the rational unified process-UML. The proposal takes into account the characteristics of each specific agent, integrating in a single description the whole system, from the analysis of the system context to its implementation. This approach facilitates implementing the software agents and the integration process.

Temporal Approaches in Data Mining. A Case Study in Agricultural Environment

In this work we present an study of the application of data mining techniques in an interesting domain, the Integrated Control. We found that in this dynamic domain, non-temporal data mining techniques are not suitable, needing to find a good temporal model. After a comparative study of several candidate models, we propose the use of the inter-transaction approach.

An abductive method for solving a treatment problem

The work analyzes a therapy planning problem in an agricultural domain in which where there are no standard treatment protocols. For this reason, the skeletal planning method cannot be applied, and the use of an abductive method is therefore proposed. This work is part of a broader project, the main goal of which is the development of a knowledge based system for phytosanitary advice. For this knowledge based system, the CommonKADS methodology has been selected. In order to apply the method, we present a general formalization of therapeutic problems that is domain independent, and afterwards we show how to find solutions for this problem using a treatment task decomposition.