An Introduction to the CYC Knowledge Base Essay -- CYC Project Technol

An Introduction to the CYC Knowledge Base I. Abstract This paper is intended to be an introductory tutorial on the Very Large Knowledge Base (VLKB) called CYC. Described herein is the reasoning for the origination of the CYC project, the intended usefulness of the project (application areas), how CYC is being constructed, and a brief introduction to the supporting tools that have been developed to interact with the CYC knowledge base. II. Introduction Many Knowledge Bases (KB) have been developed to help people solve problems in very specific applications. These are relatively simple to build since the knowledge required by the specific system needs to be only those facts required to solve the problem in that particular application. An example of this type of KB would be one that contains only the information needed to diagnose particular fungal and bacterial infections. The KB would need to know about the different attributes of the microscopic organisms and their affects on the host but would not need to know that the grass is green or that the earth revolves around the sun. The CYC common sense Knowledge Base takes the opposite approach. CYC is being created to hold information that most people would consider to be common sense knowledge. The idea is to create a KB that would supply the basic knowledge needed to be applicable to many different applications. By building a KB with this general knowledge, it is hoped that the KB will be able to learn (create new inferences) by itself and be able to tell when it does not have enough information in a particular domain to resolve a problem. The CYC project was started by Doug Lenat at MCC (Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corporation, now Cycorp, Inc.) in Aust... ...nology", Cycorp, Inc, http://www.cyc.com Ginsberg, Matthew L., Essentials of Artificial Intelligence. Morgan Kaufmann, 1993. ISBN 1-55860-221-6 Lenat, D.B., Guha, R.V., "Ideas for Applying CYC", Cycorp, Inc, http://www.cyc.com/tech-reports/act-cyc-407-91/act-cyc-407-91.html Mayfield, James; Finin, Tim; Narayanaswamy, Rajkumar; Shah, Chetan; MacCartney, William; Goolsbey, Keith, "The Cycic Friends Network: getting Cyc agents to reason together", University Of Maryland - Baltimore County, http://www.cs.umbc.edu/~cikm/iia/submitted/viewing/mayfield Pratt, Vaughan, "CYC Report", Stanford University, April 16, 1994, http://www.cs.umbc.edu/~narayan/proj/cyc-critic.html Rajkumar & Shah, "A Study to assess the usefulness of CYC in a mediated architecture", University Of Maryland - Baltimore County, CYC KQML Project, http://www.cs.umbc.edu/~narayan/proj/doc.html

How to Live a Greener Lifestyle Essay

More people have paid attention to sustainable environment. This essay will introduce how to live a greener life which can be applied by each person living on earth. The behavior of greener lifestyle includes food, clothing, living and transports. These 4 parts also regarded as 4 basic need of human. First, food and clothes make a great difference for both saving source and reducing waste. Food can be divided into 2 parts vegetable and meat, once meat is produced, at the same time, animals have spent air, land, and especially much water, which means meat uses more resources than vegetable, so person should limit the frequency of eating meat. As for apparel, modern media always spread what fashion is, however, what does fashion teach the public? Fashion tells people to stay â€Å"fresh†, which encourage consumers to buy more clothes than they need. In order to follow fashion, trendsetter and the consumer could never stop shopping each year and each season. Almost everything in fashion is cyclical, a dress which has been owned would become â€Å"out† in a short time. A greener lifestyle bans buying clothes if you do not need. Second, the choice of where you are living is a factor to greener lifestyle. People who are looking forward to bigger house are not living a green life. Because the bigger living space is, the more resources must be used to adjust the temperature. The habit of using heating equipment or air-condition is common in daily life, living in a small space can both save money and energy. The last part that a greener lifestyle asks for is transport. Citizens should decrease using private car, what a greener life is taking public transport such as subway, bus or train as much as possible, in this way, each private car owner would save his part which spends oil and release toxic gas. After following these step above, people all around the earth would live a greener lifestyle. Eating more vegetables, buying clothes sanely, not pursuing bigger house and taking public transport are easy to perform.

The Impact of African American Stereotypes

Many of us have received a meager education about African-Americans. In fact, many people have no clue about African Americans beyond the information we have been given in the media. The result has been that most whites possess a distorted image of African-Americans. This not only limits a person's worldview, but this is also dangerous. The media has no incentive to present accurate, much less positive, images of African-Americans. This is nothing new, but the inaccuracies have a greater impact on the lives of black people. Throughout history, black men have been presented as beastly savage. For example, in the movie â€Å"Jersey Drive,† the blacks are portrayed as a bunch of violent thieves who thrive from stealing others† cars. Often, in the past they were shown as subhuman beings preying on the fragile white woman. With the advent of radio and television, black men were depicted as buffoons and criminals. Today, few images are presented, showing what black men are really like. For instance, Denzel Washington who is a brilliant actor, as well as a successful businessman in today†s society is a great image. Unfortunately, it is easier for most people who are not black to build their assumptions from media depictions rather than to go out and to meet the actual people. These images have contributed to the most violent behavior against black men that this country has ever seen. Over the course of the twentieth century, thousands of black men were lynched for often false rape allegations by white women. Black men have been repeatedly denied access to opportunities for education and employment. To this day, black men remain perceived as a â€Å"threat† and are the targets of sometimes fatal acts of police brutality. It is not a coincidence that African American men are imprisoned and given stiffer sentences than their white counterparts. Black men are not the only victims of harmful stereotypes. Black women are perceived as pillars of strength. This is a perception that a number of black women are proud to accept. The black women we see in the media tend to be powerful, nurturing figures. With the exception of a handful of supermodels, black women are often viewed as unattractive by the popular American beauty standards. An overwhelming view of black women is that they are stern, perhaps even domineering. To illustrate, In â€Å"Soul Food,† the females are in charge of keeping the family together through all the struggles. These images of black women have led traditional society to ignore the real concerns of black women. Perhaps, they tend to be depicted as superhuman creatures. Black women are seen as being able to withstand any personal tragedy and to emerge totally prepared to face the demands of life. In summation, few of us received educations about African Americans. Throughout history, black men have been presented as beastly. Also, Black women have been perceived as stone walls of strength, powerful, and nurturing figures. Few people take time to see the truth behind these stereotypes. If we really want to know about African Americans, the education that personal interaction and books provide are much more insightful than the media†s misrepresentations.

The #1 Rule for Filling Out Your Walmart Application

The #1 Rule for Filling Out Your Walmart Application SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips Applying for a Walmart career? Want your Walmart application to stand out? Filling out the Walmart online application can be a little confusing. In addition to normal application questions about your background, the Walmart application asks you to complete a "Pre-Employment Assessment test." This 65-question test will HUGELY affect your chances of starting a Walmart career. In this guide, I’ll tell you where to find the Walmart online application. Even better, I'll explain the key to acing the Walmart Pre-Employment Assessment Test, so you have the best chance possible of getting a Walmart job. How to Find the Walmart Online Application for Retail Work First things first, how do you find Walmart employment? Head on over to the Walmart.com jobs website. The website will take you through a few steps to find a Walmart job near you. Once you’ve located a job near you, the application is split into two main sections: background information and the pre-employment assessment. The background information section is pretty simple. It just asks you to enter information about where you live, how to contact you, your education, your previous employment history, etc. Simply follow the steps on the website, and answer every question truthfully. Once you’ve completed the background information portion, you’ll be re-directed to the Walmart Pre-Employment Assessment. How to Ace the Walmart Pre-Employment Assessment The second part of the Walmart application is the Pre-Employment Assessment, a 65-question test split into four sections. In the first section, you’ll be presented with various work-related situations and you’ll need to select the most appropriate response. Below are examples of these types of questions from the actual Walmart job application. The second section asks you to rate the effectiveness of certain work actions on a scale of 1-5 for effectiveness. In the third section, you’re presented with statements, and you need to select how much you agree or disagree with it. The fourth section asks you about your past experience. The Pre-Employment Assessment is graded pass/fail. You have to complete and pass the test to be considered for a Walmart job. Therefore, you need to do well, but how? The #1 most important rule to remember to ace the test is that quality customer service is very important to Walmart. Consider that before answering any questions. I’ll walk you through a sample question from each section and show you how to apply this rule to answer the question. Section 1 sample question: â€Å"One of your customers has just said to you, ‘The service here is terrible.’ You should say:† â€Å"What is it about the service that you have not liked?† â€Å"Would you like to fill out a complaint form? I can get one for you.† â€Å"I realize our service is poor today. We are understaffed, so I apologize.† â€Å"I am really sorry to hear you say that, but we are trying as hard as we can.† If you think what would quality customer service be, then you’d probably realize that just apologizing is not the best choice. You want to learn WHAT it is that was bad, and figure out how you can improve it. Therefore, I’d eliminate C and D. B is good but not very personal. A shows the customer you care and want to help. Therefore, A is the best choice in terms of quality customer service, so I’d choose A. Section 2 sample question: Rate the following action listed for dealing with an angry customer who has come to you with a complaint on a scale of 1-5 for effectiveness (1 being very ineffective, 5 being very effective): â€Å"Outlining reason why the customer’s concern is not right.† If I, the employee, tell the customer that they shouldn’t be angry and that their complaint is not valid, that will likely make the customer angrier. It certainly won’t make the customer happy and won’t make them feel like they’re being appreciated or listened to. Imagine if you went to a store yourself and was angry - would you like if it the staff member told you why you were wrong? Probably not. Therefore, it would be bad customer service, so I think it’d be very ineffective. I’d give it a 1. Section 3 sample question: Rate the following for how much you agree or disagree on a scale of 1-5 (1 being strongly disagree, 5 being strongly agree): â€Å"I enjoy spending the time to find answers to difficult questions.† If Walmart cares about quality customer service, then they want all Walmart employees to answer all customer questions. If a customer presents you with a difficult question, then Walmart expects you to find the answer. If you say you hate spending time answering hard questions, Walmart may think you won’t help customers. Therefore, I’d guess they want you to enjoy spending time answering questions. I’d say 5 strongly agree. Section 4 sample question: â€Å"You have typically set work standards that were aimed:† â€Å"Above average as compared to other employees.† â€Å"At the same level as other employees.† â€Å"At achieving the highest quality possible.† â€Å"At completing the largest quantity of work.† Again, Walmart cares about quality customer service. Therefore, they care about high quality work. Using this logic, A or C is probably the best answer. If you compare A and C, A simply says the work standard is above average while C says the work standard is aimed at achieving the highest quality possible. C is the better choice because it’s stronger than A. The customer should always be happy. Summary: How to Start Your Walmart Career If you're looking to work at Walmart, remember the following key points: You can find Walmart jobs and start filling out the Walmart application at the Walmart.com jobs website. There are two parts to the Walmart application: provide your background information and answer a Pre-Employment Assessment. You need to pass the Pre-Employment Assessment in order to be eligible for a Walmart job. When working through the assessment always keep the principles of excellent customer service in mind.

How to Remain Productive When Working Remotely

How to Remain Productive When Working Remotely According to recent Stanford University research, more than 10% of the U.S. workforce now works remotely or from home. This setup can be beneficial for everyone- managers get more productive workers due to eliminating a commute time,  and workers get to concentrate on their duties without too much micromanaging from their bosses. Working from home in your pajamas sounds lovely, doesn’t it? You get to get your job done while throwing in loads of laundry in your coffee breaks. But being super-close to all the trappings of your home life- or just being far away from all your colleagues and supervisors- can be distracting and have an isolating effect. To make sure you’re maximally productive â€Å"on the job,† even when at home, follow these handy tips.1. Set your hours.Pencil in the hours when you will be â€Å"at work.† These hours don’t have to be 9-5, but they do have to suit your working/living needs and schedule and not conflict with the needs o f your boss. Once you set them, stick to them. Don’t plan long lunches or personal appointments during these hours. Treat it like a time card. If you prefer to break up the day into chunks, make sure those chunks are long enough to be productive (say 3 hours) to get some work done.2. Designate an office.Even if you live somewhere cramped and can’t have â€Å"an office,† at least mark off some sort of work station or area for yourself. Turn off the television, and try to get off the couch or your bed. Head to the same spot to work each day. Train your brain that this area is where your job happens, and the rest of your house is where your life happens.3. Don’t forget to get outside.Don’t go skipping around the block regularly during your work hours, mind you- unless it’s just for a wee stroll to get the blood moving. But do try and make sure that you aren’t spending all day and night, every day and night, at home. Make after-work plans , or incorporate out-of-the-house exercise at some point.4. Plan your days out each morning.Make to-do lists for yourself of all the work tasks you need or want to accomplish in a given day. Then figure out how to ration out your day to complete them. This will keep you from veering off task, even when distractions present themselves. Don’t procrastinate, and you’ll stand a good chance of getting things done.5. Minimize online (and other) distractions.The less time you spend surfing Reddit or falling down the rabbit hole of social media, the better and more productive you will be. Use programs like Freedom or Self Control to keep you off the Internet during your work hours.6. Take care of yourself.Make sure you get on a steady sleep schedule that complements your work schedule- and stick to it. Get enough sleep. Make sure to shower and put on something other than sweatpants. Eat a good breakfast and healthy lunches and snacks throughout the day. Exercise when you can t o keep your blood and brain flowing.7. Demand a quiet space.You might have to tell your friends and family to leave you the heck alone during your business hours. Tell them what your constraints are, and then be ruthless about adhering to your schedule. When your people know your break and off times, they’ll be able to train themselves not to interrupt at other times.8. Check in with others.Don’t just work all day all by yourself and send emails to your boss with progress. Check in with your colleagues and supervisor regularly. Develop relationships with other telecommuters. Perhaps set up a happy hour for other work-from-homers. Get yourself some human interaction- professionally as well as personally.9. Log off every day.Once you’re done for the day, leave your workspace, shut your computer, and step away from the job. It’s even more important to keep these boundaries fiercely drawn when you’re working from home. Don’t end up checking work emails until bedtime- you’ll drive yourself nuts!

Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 68

Assignment Example The clock was ticking fast on this particular day and at exactly 9 AM. We left our school and headed for the event. The kick off time for the event was expected to be at exactly 10. AM and was targeted to cover three schools in the neighborhood. It was organized by the peer educators’ group from my school and I requested for an opportunity to offer a speech and this was granted to me. The organizers for the event therefore were my school’s peers educators group and the intended audience was the students from the three targeted high schools. I had not figured out that my speech would be a source of motivation to the students. It then started with prayers, then followed speech from two guest speakers and finally my time came. This was the first day in my whole life that I had to address such a big audience. As I walked to the stage, I broke out in a cold sweat and so I had to take a quick breath as my mother had constantly advised. I then felt at ease and was able to star t telling my story. â€Å"We are all unique and so our strengths, weaknesses and abilities,† I said. I gained composure at this moment when everyone turned their attention to listening to me and I started with explaining how I lost my self worth due to the fact that I could not have artistic abilities as my brothers had and how this led me to performing poorly in my academics. I continued telling of how the decline in academic performance led me to receiving negative comments from my high school teachers and friends and how I started believing in this comments. I explained how everyone thought that I was a disappointment to my family, how I stopped believing my parents when they told me that I was unique and that I had a special ability, other than the artistic ability that my brothers possessed. â€Å"I then resulted to isolating myself from my friends who could at that moment perform better than I could and I ended up in a state of self denial†. I explained how my academic performance

Christina of Markyate Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Christina of Markyate - Essay Example Christina was educated which also made her unusual for her time period. Through a unique biography written during her time, Christina has become immortal through literary history in the story of her life and of the many ways in which she fought to hold true to her virtue in order to serve God. The book, The Life of Christina of Markyate: A Twelfth Century Recluse is intended to provide readers an insight into the life of a prioress so that they can live by her example. It is believed that the surviving copy of the book was written near the middle of the fourteenth century, perhaps written at St Albans under the direction of John of Tynemouth for a series on the lives of saints that he was assembling. The original text is available which is written in one persons handwriting, although there are notes on the pages from others, and is said to be quite beautiful (Talbot 1). The manuscript, that came to belong to Sir Robert Cotton and was within the Cottonian collection, was damaged durin g the fire of 1731. However, only the first page and the last page seemed to have sustained any significant damage (Talbot 3). The only things that are known of the one who wrote the biography is that he was a monk in the monastery of St. Albans. It is clear that the biography, in its original form, was written by someone who was close to Christina and who was very familiar with Geoffrey de Gorham, the wealthy abbot of St Albans who offered support to Christina. The writer refers to ‘our monastery’, thus creating the impression that the monastery where Christina made her place, St Albans, is also his monastery (Talbot 6). Through the personalized way in which he describes the lives of the characters in her life, it is probable that he knew them all. Christiana was born into an Anglo-Saxon noble family at the end of the 11th century. Her name was originally Theodora, but she changed her name to Christina. Her family was in danger, however, because of the French occupatio n of England and in this situation, the Anglo-Saxon nobility was almost powerless. Christina went with her family to St Alban to pray and the effect that the visit had on her was to turn her devotion to God. She swore her virginal state to God as a devotion to a life in his service. However, a man decided to marry her and asked her father for permission. Her biography suggests a great many ways in which her parents tried to trick her into losing her virginity to her future husband, but through her own tricks and prayer, she was able to keep sacred her virginity (Amt 139). Christina is portrayed as being very intelligent, an intelligence that is recognized by her parents. One of the aspects of Medieval life for women was in the commoditization of their lives. Women were essentially sold into marriage in exchange for whatever the parents of that woman needed, whether that be political considerations, money, or social prestige. Through Christina, her parents could find a match that wou ld benefit their lives. Talbot translates that her biography states â€Å"For if she remained chaste in love of Christ, they feared they would lose her, and all that they could hope to gain through her† (Talbot 69). As a woman, Christina was intended to be a product rather than a person, an object rather than the subject of her own life. In her refusal to her parents in front of the Fredebertus of the monastery, she states â€Å".