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Benzodiazepines (BZDs) are frequently prescribed for the treatment of sleep disturbances,depression,anxiety syndromes and various somatoform disorders in the elderly.The daily doses of BZDs for elderly patients should be low enough to avoid the adverse effects.However,the actual situation of prescribing BZDs in Japan has not been fully elucidated.We,therefore.,analyzed 56,192 prescriptions including BZDs (23 BZDs including the non-BZD hypnotics,zolpidem and zopiclone) for 6,777 patients at Tsukuba University Hospital using Data Warehouse,a knowledge base technology.Fifty-four percent of prescriptions including BZDs were from departments other than psychiatry,and 33.8% were for patients over 65 years old.Prescriptions for elderly patients from the psychiatry department were less frequent than those from other departments (18.4 vs.47.2%).While 83% of BZDs prescribed for elderly patients were short-acting BZDs,longacting BZDs were prescribed more frequently by the psychiatry department than others (41.2 vs.16.7%).Intentional dose reduction of BZDs for elderly patients was observed only for etizolam.Our results suggested that BZDs except for etizolam were prescribed without dose reduction to elderly patients in the departments other than psychiatry.

Several injectable drugs with different dosages and prices are used in anti-cancer treatments. It is difficult for pharmacists and medical staff to select optimal combinations of products that meet the prescribed dosages at the minimum price. In view of this, we developed a support program for determining such product combinations using NaU DSP®, a processing software. Our program has a simple calculation function that enables us to find the optimal product combinations among the potential matches. We applied it in the analysis of the combined use of the products in cisplatin (2,082 prescriptions), carboplatin (829 prescriptions), methotrexate (1,029 prescriptions), and cytarabine (893 prescriptions) preparations over the period from July 2001 to March 2003 in our hospital.Compared with not using the program, a reduction in the costs of product combinations was achieved for 147 prescriptions (7.1%) with cisplatin, 79 (9.5%) with carboplatin, 192 (19.0%) with methotrexate, and 249 (28.0%) with cytarabine. The reduction in total cost [median (range)/prescription] was ¥1,890 (250-6,445) for cisplatin, ¥2,909 (1,202-19,655) for carboplatin, ¥485 (485-9,146) for methotrexate and ¥2,103 (174-42,000) for cytarabine. The program that we developed can thus be used effectively to find optimal product combinations and reduce drug costs.

This paper describes the representation of an assembly architecture. A functional element is introduced to represent assembly architecture. By using this functional element, constraint of assembly architecture can be naturally described. This functional element is used to express relations among the parts. The constraint among assembly parts which interfere without touching can be described by the relation. The relation has an assembly method etc. and can describe constraint and interference. It is shown that the search space of the assembly sequence is reduced by using our representation of assembly architecture.

In the design of architecture, machinery, and electronic circuits, many materials and equations have been prepared and utilized for each part involved and for each design requirement. We generally regard knowledge, such as a design formula, as restrained conditional knowledge and develop a system to find solutions by the reduction method. The system is capable of handling values and numerical equations, retrieval of design material, and searching for solutions, making it effective for programming design calculation. Therefore, the system is superior to conventional design systems written in FORTRAN. The system has the following features: (1) The user can provide knowledge and specification to the design system in the form of constraints and can search for a solution with the aid of the system. This enables a multi-purpose system for design, design testing, and partial alteration of design. (2) Solution of constraints is performed using the reduction method to integrally perform different design calculations. (3) Design knowledge is controlled using object oriented programming and is modularized to a high degree for excellent availability, extendibility, and maintenance. In this paper, these features are illustrated through an example of design programming for a gear reducer. In addition, this paper shows that programming for machine design and robot operation can be described using the same language.

This paper describes a knowledge representation and programming method for a robotic assembly task. The methodology is explained using a robotic assembly task involving position and force controls. The action sequence is defined based on a control hierarchy which consists of four levels (Control primitive level, Control skill level, Skill level, and Task level). A complicated assembly task can be represented by the product and concatenation of control primitives in the lower levels, and various tasks can be defined by adding new control primitives. The parts to be assembled are represented by the built-up structure that we propose. In this paper, the concept of a CRS (Constraint Reduction System) is introduced for creating a robot task program. The CRS is realized through the use of an extended "prolog" programming language. All the actions and primitives are considered processes and can be uniformly described by the reduction rule of the CRS.

distribution center generally tends to fall into operational disorder due to fluctuation in the quantity and variety of the daily orders. Hence, a novel methodology to deal with such problems is strongly required. This paper presents a new concept called "design space" in order to model the individual operation know-how. The planning procedure for a comprehensive operation can be represented as a chain of small design spaces. We focused primarily on the operation of an order picking system with a conveyor and a pick-to-light in the center. We then performed a problem analysis in order to formulate the practical models of the operation management plans by using design space, and we implemented them as a knowledge base. We carried out a simulation of the future operation plan using the data of a past work log from an actual distribution center and obtained successful results with improved throughput and shorter process time.

Recently, design support tools have been used to improve the efficiency of design work. These tools support design verification at each design stage, and succeed to some extent in improving the efficiency of the design work. However, the management of scattered design information and data conversion have lately become difficult because designers often require two or more tools. In this paper, we focus on the detailed design of mechanism parts made by injection molding and used in precision consumer products. We propose a design product model which describes the detailed design of such parts. The model describes the mechanism parts based on sets of faces, which are basic units in design work. In this way, the model can express design information in both two- and three-dimensional forms. We also define the procedures used to operate the model. Finally, the effectiveness of this model is shown by applying it to an experimental system.

A knowledge-based system is suitable for realizing advanced functions that require domain-specific expert knowledge in enterprise-mission-critical information systems (enterprise applications). This paper describes a newly implemented multi-threaded Prolog system that evolves single-threaded Inside Prolog. It is intended as a means to apply a knowledge-based system written in Prolog to an enterprise application. It realizes a high degree of parallelism on an SMP system by minimizing mutual exclusion for scalability essential in enterprise use. Also briefly introduced is the knowledge processing server which is a framework for operating a knowledge-based system written in Prolog with an enterprise application. Experimental results indicated that on an SMP system the multi-threaded Prolog could achieve a high degree of parallelism while the server could obtain scalability. The application of the server to clinical decision support in a hospital information system also demonstrated that the multi-threaded Prolog and the server were sufficiently robust for use in an enterprise application.

We report on a knowledge-based system for process planning in cold forging. In this system, a forged product is represented as an aggregation of forming patterns that consists of cylindrical pillar parts. The basic principle of the inference method we propose is to adjust the diameters of neighboring stepped cylinders so that they are identical. Plural deformable process plans are generated using expert knowledge about working limits, die configurations, and metal flow. This system can eliminate ineffective plans by using the knowledge of how to combine plural forming patterns into a single process. Moreover, it can evaluate process plans and interactively select the optimal one by considering production costs, the forming load, the effective strain in the product, the equipment, and other factors. We applied this system to actual forged products. As a result, this system is widely applicable to various shapes and types of equipment and can improve both maintenance and operation.

We propose a knowledge-based system for process planning in cold forging. In our study, we had developed FORTEK-L (FORging Technology of process planning using Expert Knowledge for Layout), which is widely applicable to various shapes and types of equipment. In the next step, we have developed a knowledge-based die configuration design system, FORTEK-D (Die configuration design), which can generate suitable die configurations from layouts obtained from FORTEK-L. In the development of FORTEK-D, we have analyzed and reproduced the expert engineer’s thinking process during die configuration design. Moreover, we have formulated the data representation, inference method, and knowledge-base for use with this system. In accordance with the formulation, we have developed a prototype system. We applied FORTEK-D to actual forged products and obtained appropriate results. The knowledge using the basic principle is widely applicable to various shapes and on a variety of equipment. Therefore, the abilities to maintain and operate the system have been improved.

Themanagement of design information is been becoming more and more important, and considerable research is being carried out on the representation of design information of assembly parts. This paper describes the representation of an assembly structure, which includes the introduction of a functional element. By using this functional element, constraint of the assembly structure can be naturally described. The functional element is used to express relations among the parts, and a relation can describe constraints among assembly parts which interfere without touching. The relation includes an assembly method and is capable of describing both constraint and interference. We demonstrate that our representation of the assembly structure reduces the search space of the assembly sequence.

Welding vessel objects such as heat exchanger of power plant, oil-tank and other civil-used pressure vessels are comparatively large size products. Design works for such products concern with the geometric design data, more important aspect is to treat with design knowledge in design operations. However, traditional CAD systems generally depend on shape-oriented approaches and pay less attention on the features of design activities and how to deal with design knowledge used in design process. To solve such a problem, as an integrative frame to deal with the knowledge of design object and design process, there has been a considerable growth of interest toward the knowledge-based design support systems. We have proposed an object oriented design object model for developing knowledge-based manufacturing design system of welding vessel objects. In this model, assembly structure of a design object is represented by the combination of the essential design operation elements and their dependencies. This paper discusses the design object modeling in manufacturing deign of welding vessels as well as its application in welding estimate of a welding vessel and method of dealing with the design knowledge related.

Welding vessel objects such as heat-exchanger, oil-tank and other civil-used pressure vessels are comparatively large size products. Design works for such products not only concern with the geometric data, more important aspect is to treat with the design knowledge used in design process. But traditional CAD systems generally depend on shape-oriented approaches and pay less attention on the features of design and dealing with design knowledge. Therefore, there has been a considerable growth of interest toward knowledge-based design support systems. We have proposed a design object model for manufacturing design of welding vessels. In this model, the assembly structure of a design object is represented by the essential design elements and their dependencies. This paper discusses its application and focus on welding estimate of a welding object and dealing with design knowledge related.

We focus on design verifications which can be interpreted as the relationships between inferior and superior characteristics in a model of design object. We are researching on a knowledge representation language and its programming techniques for tolerance analysis which is needed in design verifications. In this paper, the language is applied to some design verification. Design verification systems can be constructed using knowledge representation and programming techniques in the language. A designer who does not have knowledge of computers can easily put their knowledge into this system. A prototype system has been developed and applied to real world problems. The experiments show that this language has enough describability, maintainability and extensibility. We hope that our approach will have a positive impact on design verification systems.

我々は先に, LISPやAPLなど関数型言語の特徴をもつ動作記述型ロボット言語IMLを開発した.しかし, IMLは作業環境への適用能力を向上させるための各種センサからのフィードバック情報を処理していないので, 環境の変化に適応して行う作業を記述できなかった.本論文では, ロボットの感覚機能として力センサとオンオフセンサを考え, これらのセンサ情報を処理できるように拡張したIMLについて述べる.そして力制御モードを導入した教示データの再生によって, 作業プログラムの作成が容易になることを示す.また, いくつかの作業例をIMLで記述し, 実際にロボットにその作業を行わせることによってその有効性を確認できた.

The aim of this research is to develop the system for generating the robot assembly task program by using the datawhich are automatically designed when thedesign specification is given, such as theinput data of NC machine is made by usingthe data designed in CAD /CAM system. Inthis paper, the fundamental research for this purpose is described. When the internal pressure of a pressure containeris given, shown is the method by which therobot assembly task program is generated using the attributes of the through bolts, which are designed by calculating the allowable stress of its material.1. INTRODUCTION Each assembly parts and tool has theprocedures which play the part proper to them. We formerly proposed that it became easy to translate a natural language styletask instruction into the motion level robot program by utilizing these procedures which a human being has as image of partsas knowledge. And, we could confirm theeffectiveness by applying this idea to theexample of fastening a cover and a housing

Constraints solving theory is a practical approach to the knowledge based CAD/CAM systems. Previously we presented a computation model, the Method of Constraint Reduction based on the logic programming notion. As an application of the model to the design problem in time domain such as timing design or verification of a sequence controller, a method of representing a system of cooperating processes is introduced. This method is characterized as follows. The idea of process reduction is borrowed from Concurrent Prolog but the process reduction is performed nondeterministically. The method treats a system of processes with state variables and constraints between them.