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Among the more challenging problems in the field of artificial intelligence are those that require computers to engage in commonsense reasoning. In representational areas where robust content theories exist, a […], The central challenge in commonsense knowledge representation research is to develop content theories that achieve a high degree of both competency and coverage. We describe a new methodology for constructing formal theories in commonsense knowledge domains that complements traditional knowledge representation approaches by first addressing issues of coverage. We show how a close examination of a very general task (strategic planning) leads to a catalog of the concepts and facts that must be encoded for general commonsense reasoning. These concepts are sorted into a manageable number of coherent domains, one of which is the representational area of commonsense human memory. We then elaborate on these concepts using textual corpus-analysis techniques, where the conceptual distinctions made in natural language are used to improve the definitions of the concepts that should be expressible in our formal theories. These representational areas are then analyzed using more traditional knowledge representation techniques, as demonstrated in this article by our treatment of commonsense human memory.

Networks of subject and search terms are found to be of intrinsic value in the development of browsing-based subject access to online image collections. The study develops a methodology based on a number of common0sense activities which are related to image subject terms.

We describe Say Anything, a new interactive storytelling system that collaboratively writes textual narratives with human users. Unlike previous attempts, this interactive storytelling system places no restrictions on the content or direction of the user’s contribution to the emerging storyline. In response to these contributions, the computer continues the storyline with narration that is both coherent and entertaining. This capacity for open-domain interactive storytelling is enabled by an extremely large repository of nonfiction personal stories, which is used as a knowledge base in a case-based reasoning architecture. In this article, we describe the three main components of our case-based reasoning approach: a million-item corpus of personal stories mined from internet weblogs, a case retrieval strategy that is optimized for narrative coherence, and an adaptation strategy that ensures that repurposed sentences from the case base are appropriate for the user’s emerging fiction. We describe a series of evaluations of the system’s ability to produce coherent and entertaining stories, and we compare these narratives with single-author stories posted to internet weblogs.

• Cocaine has been used for many decades as both a stimulant and as a topical anesthetic/vasoconstrictor. Illicit "snorting" or freebase smoking has increased markedly in recent years. Decreased olfaction has been an often reported subjective complaint of cocaine abusers, but quantification of smell loss using sensitive psychophysical tests has not yet been done, leading to the present study. Eleven cocaine abusers were recruited from a drug treatment clinic. Olfaction was assessed using a butanol threshold test, the UPSIT, and a 7-item discrimination test. One patient tested anosmic, one had a mild discrimination problem, and one had a large septal perforation but was normosmic. From the present study, it appears that most cocaine abusers, even heavy users or those with intranasal damage, do not develop permanent olfactory dysfunction. It is not clear what factors may have resulted in complaints of olfactory loss in previous studies.(Arch Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg. 1990; 116: 1415-1418)

A negative correlation between adsorption of low molecular weight organic acids and sugars onto a hydroxyapatite surface and biodegradation rates of the compounds in the presence of the mineral was observed. Qualitatively, the effect was the same whether the organics were equilibrated with the surface prior to the addition of organisms or the organisms were preattached to the surface. Glucose, acetic acid, succinic acid, glutamic acid, and citric acid showed equilibrium adsorption values ranging from 0–94% from a 2μM solution. Changes in both respiration and assimilation of the substrates in the presence of hydroxyapatite were inversely correlated with adsorption.

The total heat production from luminous bacteria growing on glycerol as a sole source of carbon and energy was measured in an isothermal microcalorimeter and compared to the light emitted and growth yield. Substrate concentration was measured before and after growth to calculate the amount of substrate utilized. From these data the total energy flux was determined for Vibrio harveyi: a 25 ml culture consumed 328 micromoles of glycerol (130 cal) and produced 54 calories of heat, 76.3 cal of biomass, and 3.5 millicalories of light. Bioluminescence was then only a very small fraction (0.007%) of the total energy expended.