We consider an active information system, which aims to notify a traveler timely about a likely delay. Besides providing the right content, it should also wait for the best time for notification. This is especially true for mobile information services, where every notification may irritate the recipient. We formulate and solve such a problem involving best choices both for content and time of n...

In this paper we present a new class of complexity measures, induced by a new data structure for representing k-valued functions (operations), called minor decision diagram. The results are presented in terms of MultiValued Logic circuits (MVL-circuits), ordered decision diagrams, formulas and minor decomposition trees. When assigning values to some variables in a function f the resulting funct...

This paper is about reducing influence dia­ gram (ID) evaluation into Bayesian network (BN) inference problems. Such reduction is interesting because it enables one to read­ ily use one's favorite BN inference algorithm to efficiently evaluate IDs. Two such reduc­ tion methods have been proposed previously (Cooper 1988, Shachter and Peot 1992). This paper proposes a new method. The BN in­ feren...

This study examines some of the important organizational consequences of the fashion phenomenon in information technology. An IT fashion is an information technology transitorily collectively believed as new, efficient, and at the forefront of practice. Using data collected from published discourse and annual corporate IT budgets, I have found that companies associated with IT fashions did not ...

We discuss the phenomenon of system tailoring in the context of data from an observational study of anaesthesia. We found that anaesthetists tailor their monitoring equipment so that the auditory alarms are more informative. However, the occurrence of tailoring by anaesthetists in the operating theatre was infrequent, even though the flexibility to tailor exists on many of the patient monitorin...

London Plan is the London mayor’s Spatial Development Strategy. This strategic long-term plan comprises of proposals for different aspects of change within the London boundary. Furthermore, the proposals include chapters outlining adjustments in each facet. Policy 4A.2 reflects the Climate Change Mitigation scheme. Some consultations and research works have been performed to this point, but an ...

This study reports an intensive, exploratory study of a single, protracted conflictual interaction involving all four members of a family. Within the larger interaction, there were four subinteractions. Because of space limitations, only the central conflictual subinteraction will be described. This interaction involved three of the four family members: the father and two daughters. The two chi...

We present a prototype of a decision sup­ port system for management of the fungal disease powdery mildew in winter wheat. The prototype is based on an influence di­ agram which is used to determine the op­ timal time and dose of mildew treatments. This involves multiple decision opportunities over time, stochasticity, inaccurate informa­ tion and incomplete knowledge. The paper describes the p...

Second-order calculations may significantly increase a decision maker’s understanding of a decision situation when handling aggregations of imprecise representations, as is the case in decision trees or influence diagrams, while the use of only first-order results gives an incomplete picture. The results apply also to approaches which do not explicitly deal with second-order distributions, inst...

We welcome this opportunity to acknowledge the significance of Judea Pearl’s contributions to uncertain reasoning and in particular to his work on causality. In the decision analysis community causality had long been “taboo” even though it provides a natural framework to communicate with decision makers and experts [Shachter and Heckerman 1986]. Ironically, while many of the concepts and method...