One decisive factor for the success of symbolic search using BDDs is whether or not the variable ordering is good. A general intuition is that smaller BDDs result if inter-dependent variables are close together. The most common means to capture variable dependencies in planning are causal graphs, and consequently previous work defined variable orders based on these. Starting from the observatio...

The identification of causal relations is fundamental to a science of intervention and prevention. Obesity is a major problem for which much progress in understanding, treatment, and prevention remains to be made. Understanding which social and behavioral factors cause variations in adiposity and which other factors cause variations is vital to producing, evaluating, and selecting among interve...

This study investigated how knowledge of causality representations affects the reading in Japanese. In Experiment 1, 24 participants read events presented in cause-to-effect or effect-to-cause order without causal conjunctions. The latter received longer reading times and more regressions than the former even when probability and predictability were balanced. Experiment 2 examined whether this ...

We provide a logical representation of Pearl’s structural causal models in the framework of the causal calculus of McCain and Turner (1997) and its first-order generalization by Lifschitz. It will be shown that, under this representation, the nonmonotonic semantics of the causal calculus describes precisely the solutions of the structural equations (the causal worlds of a causal model), while t...

As part of an ongoing effort by the ministry of Social Affairs and Employment of The Netherlands a research project is being undertaken to construct a causal model for the most commonly occurring scenarios related to occupational risk. This model should provide quantitative insight in the causes and consequences of occupational accidents. The results should be used to help selecting optimal str...

...............................................................................................vi Table of

The contribution is mainly concerned with presentation of a new fundamental approach to structural properties of linear and non-linear causal system representations. It has been proven that complete analysis of instability, conservativity, dissipativity, anti-dissipativity, stability, asymptotic stability and chaoticity reduces to two independent tests: the test of state energy monotonicity and...

The manipulationist account of causation provides a conceptual analysis of cause-effect relationships in terms of hypothetical experiments. It also explains why and how experiments are used for the empirical testing of causal claims. This paper attempts to apply the manipulationist account of causation to a broader range of experiments—a range that extends beyond experiments explicitly designed...

Meeting satisfaction is an important construct to the field of research on group support systems (GSS). This is because unless the use of GSS technology produces an increase in meeting satisfaction, it is unlikely that users will seek to adopt the technology, regardless of any productivity gains that might be realized. If the underlying causes of meeting satisfaction can be identified, then res...