his dissertation analyzes how local knowledge improves environmental decisions. The premise is that controlling pollution and addressing public health disparities are not problems that professionals alone can solve. Concerned lay publics, especially low-income populations and people of color that experience…

The thesis explores architectural form generation through two behavior based artificial intelligence approaches: the communication of agents in an unpredictable simulation system, and the codification of information within an evolutionary process. Both concepts stem from the evaluation of potentially definable…

Computers have dramatically changed the nature of structural engineering practice by shifting work from process-oriented tasks, such as performing hand calculations and drafting, to structural modeling and interpretation of computer results. To perform these new functions, engineers need to have…

Recent advances in microdroplet generation and deposition processes have made it possible to directly form solder bumps on integrated circuits using micron-sized molten metal droplets. The direct droplet deposition bumping process can potentially produce uniform-sized bumps more economically than the…

The chemical effects of acoustic cavitation are obtained in sono-reactors built-up from a vessel and an ultrasonic
source. In this paper, simulations of an existing sono-reactor are carried out, using a linear acoustics model, accounting
for the vibrations of the…

Content vocabulary may have different connotative values and different denotational meanings in different languages according to cultural idiosyncracy, manifested in culture-specific "key" meanings and culture-related scripts. Our claim here is that, even in all these cases involving the use of…

In recent research, it is claimed that deviant features of interlanguage grammars arise only
from the users' knowledge of the rule system of the target language. This paper examines
the relative contribution of the rule system of each of the…

This paper presents the main
characteristics of an Agent-based Architecture
for the design and implementation
of a Spoken Dialogue System. From
a theoretical point of view, the system is
based on the Information State Update
approach, in particular, the system…

The supervision of postgraduate Master's Degree dissertations has attracted little attention in the
academic literature and is an under researched area of supervisory activity. This research was a
response to generate new knowledge concerning the praxis of supervisors who supervise…

This paper presents a proposal for an architecture that integrates knowledge discovery systems (automatic acquisition) and knowledge based systems (experts systems). This work formulates considerations over the viability of the implementation of this architecture according to the advance of the…