Computing and Information Systems - Theses
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ItemInterest-based negotiation in multi-agent systems( 2004)Software systems involving autonomous interacting software entities (or agents) present new challenges in computer science and software engineering. A particularly challenging problem is the engineering of various forms of interaction among agents. Interaction may be aimed at enabling agents to coordinate their activities, cooperate to reach common objectives, or exchange resources to better achieve their individual objectives. This thesis is concerned with negotiation: a process through which multiple self-interested agents can reach agreement over the exchange of scarce resources. In particular, I focus on settings where agents have limited or uncertain information, precluding them from making optimal individual decisions. I demonstrate that this form of bounded-rationality may lead agents to sub-optimal negotiation agreements. I argue that rational dialogue based on the exchange of arguments can enable agents to overcome this problem. Since agents make decisions based on particular underlying reasons, namely their interests, beliefs and planning knowledge, then rational dialogue over these reasons can enable agents to refine their individual decisions and consequently reach better agreements. I refer to this form of interaction as “interested-based negotiation.” (For complete abstract open document)
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ItemAn investigation of interactivity and flow: student behaviour during online instruction( 2004-12)This thesis combines ideas from human-computer interaction, education and psychology to explore the interactions of students in an online learning environment. The motivation for the work was to understand better how to engage students in a highly enjoyable experience of online learning. The thesis describes three experiments. The first experiment was an exploratory study investigating the influence of learner interactions in an online physics learning task. Students worked through an online learning experience that offered high and low levels of interactivity. The aim was to explore their interactions and choices in an environment in which they could elect to move from the highly interactive mode to the less interactive mode at any time. Web logs were used to track their interactions and question probes gathered data on their emotions, learning goals and strategies. The analysis revealed a number of different patterns of interaction. Statistical analysis showed that most, but not all, preferred to follow an interactive path through the material. Students who used the interactive materials showed improved learning gains in transfer-style questions compared to those in the less interactive mode. Several issues were identified as important to consider in a follow-up study: emotions, affect, challenge, and the degree of control that the learner perceives.
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ItemEfficient mining of interesting emerging patterns and their effective use in classification( 2004-07)Knowledge Discovery in Databases (KDD), or Data Mining is used to discover interesting or useful patterns and relationships in data, with an emphasis on large volume of observational databases. Among many other types of information (knowledge) that can be discovered in data, patterns that are expressed in terms of features are popular because they can be understood and used directly by people. The recently proposed Emerging Pattern (EP) is one type of such knowledge patterns. Emerging Patterns are sets of items (conjunctions of attribute values) whose frequency change significantly from one dataset to another. They are useful as a means of discovering distinctions inherently present amongst a collection of datasets and have been shown to be a powerful method for constructing accurate classifiers. (For complete abstract open document)
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ItemAccounting conservatism: evidence from the oil and gas industry( 2004)Prior evidence in the oil and gas industry suggests that investors, when assessing firm value, seem to distinguish between different degrees of accounting conservatism that result from the application of the successful efforts (SE) method versus the full cost (FC) method. However, research addressing the valuation implications of accounting choice in the oil and gas industry primarily investigated periods prior to the issuance of SFAS 121. The effect of SFAS 121 on accounting conservatism in the oil and gas industry and hence on the usefulness of the SE method, relative to the FC method, remains untested. This study extends the existing literature by re-examining the effect of accounting conservatism on the usefulness of accounting numbers produced by SE and FC methods during the period 1995-2001, a period in which both SFAS 121 and the ceiling test rules were applied. Empirical results show that in an environment of both SFAS 121 and the ceiling test, there is no difference between SE and FC firms with respect to conservatism associated with the application of accounting rules. Moreover, the results show that the usefulness of accounting numbers to investors does not differ across SE and FC methods. That is, investors attach no valuation premium of one method over the other in the oil and gas industry. This examination provides updated evidence that should be of interest to regulators and standards setters.