We propose a new measure of support (the number of occur- rences of a pattern), in which instances are more important if they occur with a certain frequency and close after each other in the stream of trans- actions. We will explain this new consecutive support and discuss how patterns can be found faster by pruning the search space, for instance using so-called parent support recalculation. Both consecutiveness and the notion of hypercliques are incorporated into the Eclat algorithm. Synthetic examples show how interesting phenomena can now be discov- ered in the datasets. The new measure can be applied in many areas, ranging from bio-informatics to trade, supermarkets, and even law en- forcement. E.g., in bio-informatics it is important to find patterns con- tained in many individuals, where patterns close together in one chro- mosome are more significant.

Predictive learning has traditionally been a standard indu ctive learning, where different sub-problem formulations have been identified. One of the most re presentative is classification, consisting on the estimation of a mapping from the feature sp ace into a finite class space. Depending on the cardinality of the finite class space we are l eft with binary or multiclass classification problems. Finally, the presence or absence o r a "natural" order among classes will separate nominal from ordinal problems. Although two-class and nominal classification problems hav e been dissected in the literature, the ordinal sibling has not yet received a lot of attention, e ven with many learning problems involving classifying examples into classes which have a na tural order. Scenarios in which it is natural to rank instances occur in many fields, such as info rmation retrieval, collaborative filtering, econometric modeling and natural sciences. Conventional methods for nominal classes or for regression problems could be employed to solve ordinal data problems; however, the use of techniques designed specifically for ordered classes yields simpler classifiers, making it easier to inte rpret the factors that are being used to discriminate among classes, and generalises better. Alt hough the ordinal formulation seems conceptually simpler than nominal, some technical di fficulties to incorporate in the algorithms this piece of additional information - the order - may explain the widespread use of conventional methods to tackle the ordinal data problem. This dissertation addresses this void by proposing a nonpar ametric procedure for the classification of ordinal data based on the extension of the original dataset with additional variables, reducing the classification task to the well-known two-clas s problem.

This paper presents results of an ongoing interdisciplinary study to develop a computational theory of creativity for engineering design. Human design activities are surveyed, and popular computer-aided design methodologies are examined. It is argued that semiotics has the potential to merge and unite various design approaches into one fundamental theory that is naturally interpretable and so comprehensible in terms of computer use. Reviewing related work in philosophy, psychology, and cognitive science provides a general and encompassing vision of the creativity phenomenon. Basic notions of algebraic semiotics are given and explained in terms of design. This is to define a model of the design creative process, which is seen as a process of semiosis, where concepts and their attributes represented as signs organized into systems are evolved, blended, and analyzed, resulting in the development of new concepts. The model allows us to formally describe and investigate essential properties of the design process, namely its dynamics and non-determinism inherent in creative thinking. A stable pattern of creative thought - analogical and metaphorical reasoning - is specified to demonstrate the expressive power of the modeling approach; illustrative examples are given. The developed theory is applied to clarify the nature of emergence in design: it is shown that while emergent properties of a product may influence its creative value, emergence can simply be seen as a by-product of the creative process. Concluding remarks summarize the research, point to some unresolved issues, and outline directions for future work.

This paper discusses the systematic use of product feedback information to support life-cycle design approaches and provides guidelines for developing a design at both the product and the system levels. Design activities are surveyed in the light of the product life cycle, and the design information flow is interpreted from a semiotic perspective. The natural evolution of a design is considered, the notion of design expectations is introduced, and the importance of evaluation of these expectations in dynamic environments is argued. Possible strategies for reconciliation of the expectations and environmental factors are described. An Internet-enabled technology is proposed to monitor product functionality, usage, and operational environment and supply the designer with relevant information. A pilot study of assessing design expectations of a refrigerator is outlined, and conclusions are drawn.

E-learning is nowadays one of the most interesting of the "e- " domains available through the Internet. The main problem to create a Web-based, virtual environment is to model the traditional domain and to implement the model using the most suitable technologies. We analyzed the distance learning domain and investigated the possibility to implement some e-learning services using mobile agent technologies. This paper presents a model of the Student Assessment Service (SAS) and an agent-based framework developed to be used for implementing specific applications. A specific Student Assessment application that relies on the framework was developed.

The Unified Software Development Process (USDP) and UML have been now generally accepted as the standard methodology and modeling language for developing Object-Oriented Systems. Although Agent-based Systems introduces new issues, we consider that USDP and UML can be used in an extended manner for modeling Agent-based Systems. The paper presents a methodology for designing agent-based systems and the specific models expressed in an UML-based notation corresponding to each phase of the software development process. UML was extended using the provided mechanism: stereotypes. Therefore, this approach can be managed with any CASE tool supporting UML. A Case Study, the development of a specific agent-based Student Evaluation System (SAS), is presented.

A fundamental problem in artificial intelligence is that nobody really knows what intelligence is. The problem is especially acute when we need to consider artificial systems which are significantly different to humans. In this paper we approach this problem in the following way: We take a number of well known informal definitions of human intelligence that have been given by experts, and extract their essential features. These are then mathematically formalised to produce a general measure of intelligence for arbitrary machines. We believe that this measure formally captures the concept of machine intelligence in the broadest reasonable sense.

We extend the 0-approximation of sensing actions and incomplete information in [Son and Baral 2000] to action theories with static causal laws and prove its soundness with respect to the possible world semantics. We also show that the conditional planning problem with respect to this approximation is NP-complete. We then present an answer set programming based conditional planner, called ASCP, that is capable of generating both conformant plans and conditional plans in the presence of sensing actions, incomplete information about the initial state, and static causal laws. We prove the correctness of our implementation and argue that our planner is sound and complete with respect to the proposed approximation. Finally, we present experimental results comparing ASCP to other planners.

Dynamic task allocation is an essential requirement for multi-robot systems operating in unknown dynamic environments. It allows robots to change their behavior in response to environmental changes or actions of other robots in order to improve overall system performance. Emergent coordination algorithms for task allocation that use only local sensing and no direct communication between robots are attractive because they are robust and scalable. However, a lack of formal analysis tools makes emergent coordination algorithms difficult to design. In this paper we present a mathematical model of a general dynamic task allocation mechanism. Robots using this mechanism have to choose between two types of task, and the goal is to achieve a desired task division in the absence of explicit communication and global knowledge. Robots estimate the state of the environment from repeated local observations and decide which task to choose based on these observations. We model the robots and observations as stochastic processes and study the dynamics of the collective behavior. Specifically, we analyze the effect that the number of observations and the choice of the decision function have on the performance of the system. The mathematical models are validated in a multi-robot multi-foraging scenario. The model's predictions agree very closely with experimental results from sensor-based simulations.

This means that there is an issue over the best way of evaluating their effectiveness on both sound educational principles and on Human Computer Interface principles. It is the aim of this paper to highlight some of the steps to move toward an objective standard by which to gauge VLEs and ultimately to provide a single overall index measure (essentially a score out of 10) for both usability and educational worth based upon an analysis of accepted standards. An HCI index was constructed for general usability comparison and a separate educational index (EDI index) was designed to provide a measure of educational quality. First the Blackboard VLE and second an open source VLE, Moodle, were tested. As far as possible the open source VLE carried the same content as the Blackboard VLE to allow a comparison of the VLE structure and operation rather than its content. Usability statistics are obtained from a set of standard users.