by Kimberly G. Waters., Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 2002., Includes bibliographical references (p. 45-46).

Strategic management as an academic field of study has spanned over four decades. As an interdisciplinary subject that enjoys concurrent contributions by allied disciplines such as economics and social science, numerous industries have benefited from applying tools and concepts developed…

Knowledge acquisition for systems based on knowledge can be called knowledge engineering, according to Feigenbaum (1980) who used the term to describe the reduction of a wide context of knowledge for a set of facts and rules. The term Knowledge…

Most neural network learning algorithms cannot use knowledge other than what is provided in the training data. Initialized using random weights, they cannot use prior knowledge such as knowledge stored in previously trained networks. This manuscript thesis addresses this problem.…

In the restricted single-machine common due date problem the goal is to find a schedule for the n jobs which jointly minimizes the sum of earliness and tardiness penalties, while for the weighted tardiness problem the goal is to find…

Argumentative formalisms have been widely recognized as knowledge representation and reasoning tools able to deal with incomplete and potentially contradictory informa- tion. All such formalisms are computationally demanding. Hence, optimizing argumen- tative systems has been approached from di erent views.

Instruction may be seen as the intentional creation of conditions around learning so as to facilitate the achievement of determined goals. Normally, instruction is based upon certain educational strategies. It is well accepted in the field of educational technology that…

Determining an optimal schedule to minimize the completion time of the last job abandoning the system (makespan) becomes a very difficult problem when there are more than two machines in the flow shop. Due both to its economical impact and…

Cultural resources like traditional medicinal knowledge need to be recognized in their role tied to important regional practices in Zimbabwe. This is especially as a nexus of legal definitions for biological, intellectual and cultural resources will inform a National Sui…

This dissertation addresses the issues pertaining to composite products (CPs). CPs are defined as products formed by combining knowledge from two distinct domains, for example, digital cameras, which combine knowledge from digital products and cameras. The three research questions addressed…