Knowledge-based computer algorithms help human operators make decisions. The complexity and sophistication of such algorithms provide sufficient computational support for successful outcomes. The real challenge is designing a visual delivery system that presents information clearly, thereby enhancing the decision-making process. The primary focus of our existing human-computer interface was on improving the processing performed by the initial algorithms, rather than presenting the information in a manner that facilitated human understanding. Our new goal was to redesign that human-computer interface so that the user could more easily access, understand, and use the information provided by the algorithms. Using a story metaphor, we identified and linked three basic visualization layers for delivery of the information: geospatial, temporal, and logical. The underlying technology used visualization techniques that allowed humans to better understand the output of automated reasoning algorithms in support of military and intelligence community decision making. Metrics were defined to quantify the effectiveness of this technology for knowledge visualization in decision making. The design was demonstrated for a strategic command and control program. The knowledge visualization was found to be intuitive and easy to navigate. Our ongoing work will quantify the extent to which decisions are made faster, more accurately, and with smaller crews.
Parallel computers with tens of thousands of processors are typically programmed in a data parallel style, as opposed to the control parallel style used in multiprocessing. The success of data parallel algorithms—even on problems that at first glance seem inherently serial—suggests that this style of programming has much wider applicability than was previously thought.
Recent epidemiologic evidence has accumulated indicating that certain chimpanzees and other primates act as carriers of human hepatitis virus. Outbreaks of human hepatitis in which primates have been so implicated are summarized in this paper, and the significant epidemiologic findings are emphasized. Isolations of viral agents from the stools of 25 suspect animals, together with experimental attempts to characterize some of the properties of these agents and to relate them to human hepatitis virus, are described. The paper also gives biochemical and histologic evidence for pathologic involvement of the livers of some of the implicated primates, as a possible consequence of infection by hepatitis virus. Such findings suggest that certain primates may prove useful as experimental hosts for human hepatitis virus.
