In a defeasible argumentation formalism, an argument is used as a defeasible reason for supporting conclusions. A conclusion q will be considered valid only when the argument that supports it become a justification. Building a justification involves the construction of…

The general objective of this thesis is the development of an adaptive technique for extracting knowledge in large databases. Nowadays, technology allows storing huge volumes of information. For this reason, the availability of techniques that allow, as a first stage,…

Freud's theory of jokes explains how they overcome the mental "censors" that make it hard for us to think "forbidden" thoughts. But his theory did not work so well for humorous nonsense as for other comical subjects. In this essay…

Previous work in software product lines showed an increment of up to 10 times in productivity and product quality [SEI Prod_Line]; because of this, the software product line approach is critical for the success of a development project including a…

Disjunctive logic programs have been studied in order to increase expressivity, especially in representing indefinite information. Even though there is no general consensus on any specific semantic for disjunctive logic programs with negation, most of well known semantics are minimal…

We develop a theory to explain the transition from stagnation to modern growth. We focus on the forces that shaped the evolution of total factor productivity in agriculture and manufacturing across history. More specifically, we build a multisector model of…

This paper describes an approach to supporting work in the office. Using and extending ideas from the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI) we describe office work as a problem solving activity. A knowledge embedding language called Omega is used to…

The 1980s saw an increase in learning support assistants (LSAs’) in colleges for further
education to support post-sixteen learners with learning difficulties and disabilities (LDD).
LSAs’ were appointed on an ad hoc basis with little or no experience, or relevant

This thesis is based on the premise that small nations face unique challenges in the quest for economic prosperity. They have a small domestic economy and are more dependent than larger economies on international trade. Smallness typically entails a lack…

Webster P. Dove., Originally presented as author's thesis (Ph. D.--Massachusetts Institute of Technology), 1986., Bibliography: p. 209-213., Supported in part by the Advanced Research Projects Agency monitored by ONR under contract no. N00014-81-K-0742 Supported in part by the National Science…