Louis A. Le Blanc

Berry College · Professor Emeritus

A large sample (initially 33,000 cases representing a ten percent trial) of university alumni giving records for a large public university in the southwestern United States is analyzed by Formal Concept Analysis. This likely represents the initial attempt to perform analysis of such data by means of a machine learning technique. The variables emplo...

Packaged software evaluation represents a major decision for business. It involves a number of quantitative as well as qualitative attributes in choosing among system alternatives. This paper illustrates an evaluation methodology for accounting software selection, specifically a fixed asset system. The methodology incorporates three stages: 1) soft...

A large sample (initially 33,000 cases representing a ten percent trial) of university alumni giving records for a large public university in the southwestern United States is analyzed by Formal Concept Analysis. This likely represents the initial attempt to perform analysis of such data by means of a machine learning technique. The variables emplo...

A large sample of 33 000 university alumni records were cluster-analyzed to generate six groups relatively unique in their respective attribute values. The attributes used to cluster the former students included average gift to the university's foundation and to the alumni association for the same institution. Cluster detection is useful in this ap...

A large sample (initially 33,000 cases representing a ten percent trial) of university alumni giving records for a large public university in the southwestern United States are analyzed by Formal Concept Analysis (FCA). This likely represents the initially attempt to perform analysis of such data by means of a machine learing technique. The variabl...

Formal concept analysis (FCA) is a theory of data analysis that identifies conceptual structures among datasets. A strong feature of FCA is its capability of producing graphical visualizations of the inherent structures among data. High-risk systems have some special characteristics that result in inevitable accidents. This research utilizes FCA to...

Transactional association analysis deals with establishing associations among transactional items in the form of rules. The effects of business rules on the outcome of such analysis are widely ignored, while attention has been misapplied to the mining of different patterns. Ignoring such business rules may result in association rules that are biase...

A decision support system (DSS) was constructed to assist the academic advising staff of a college of business. The microcomputer-based system identifies any remaining unsatisfied degree program requirements, selects courses in which the student can enroll and then prioritizes them. Advisors are then able to spend time on more substantive or develo...

A decision support system (DSS) was constructed to assist the academic advising staff of a college of business. The microcomputer-based system identifies any remaining unsatisfied degree program requirements, selects courses in which the student can enroll and then prioritizes them. Advisors are then able to spend time on more substantive or develo...

This paper describes a sample of over 900 vessel accidents that occurred on the lower Mississippi River. Two different techniques, one statistical and the other based on a neural network model, were used to build logical groups of accidents. The objective in building the groups was to maximize between-group variation and minimize within-group varia...

In this paper, a resource allocation system is modeled with relational database technology. To allocate resources through a negotiation-based system, two steps of pre-allocation and negotiated allocation have been modeled with a join procedure for two relations. These relations represent the requirements for experiential nursing practice and the av...

A composite model of neural network and rough sets components was constructed to predict a sample of bank holding patterns. The final model was able to correctly classify 96% of a testing set of four types of bank holding structures. Holding structure is defined as the number of banks under common ownership. For this study, forms of bank holding st...

A large sample of 936 vessel accident cases occurring between 1979 and 1987 on the lower Mississippi River were cluster analyzed to generate four groups relatively unique in their respective attribute values. The attributes used to cluster the accidents included participation in the U.S. Coast Guard's New Orleans Vessel Traffic Service (NOLA-VTS),...

A large sample of 936 vessel accident cases occurring between 1979 and 1987 on the Lower Mississippi River were cluster analyzed to generate four groups relatively unique in their respective attribute values. The attributes used to cluster the accidents included participation in the U. S. Coast Guard's New Orleans Vessel Traffic Service (NOLA-VTS),...

Accidents serve as an operational measure of marine safety, and specifically the safety of vessels, crews, and cargoes. The ability to accurately predict the type of vessel accident with such input variables as time, location, weather, river stage, and traffic could significantly reduce marine casualties by alerting port authorities and navigation...

Analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) integrates analysis of variance (ANOVA) and regression. The basic advantages of ANCOVA over ANOVA are: (1) generally greater power, and (2) reduction in bias caused by differences between groups that exist before experimental treatments are administered. ANCOVA has numerous possible applications in the evaluation of...

A decision support system (DSS) was constructed to assist the academic advising staff of a business school. The microcomputerbased system identifies any remaining unsatisfied degree program requirements, selects courses in which the student is eligible to enroll, and prioritizes the courses. The DSS permits advisors to spend time on the more substa...

An abstract is not available.

This paper illustrates an evaluation and selection approach for CASE software or CASE tools. The approach incorporates three phases: (1) CASE software screening; (2) CASE tool evaluation; and (3) confirmation of the final CASE software selection. Initially, developing a short list through screening of commercial CASE products determines whether app...

Packaged software evaluation represents a major decision for end-users. It involves a number of quantitative as well as qualitative attributes in choosing among system alternatives. This paper reports the results of an evaluation designed to assess two choice models utilized in a software evaluation and selection case study. As part of an empirical...

Outsourcing is the usc of outside vendors to provide services that are too expensive in time, personnel, equipment, or money for an organization to provide for itself. Computer tasks such as data management, network operations, or disaster recovery can ail be expertly handled by outside sources. Many companies have successfully applied outsourcing...

This article illustrates an evaluation and selection methodology for expert system (ES) shells. The methodology incorporates three stages: (1) ES shell screaning, (2) shell evaluation, and (3) assurance of final ES shell selection. Initially, developing a short list through screening of commercial shell products determines whether appropriate softw...

The information technology described is a U.S. Coast Guard vessel movement reporting system, known as a vessel traffic service. This group decision support system aids vessel operators to navigate a treacherous portion of the Mississippi River from the Gulf of Mexico to Baton Rouge. Voluntary participants provide inputs for a computer simulated tra...

System performance measurement often is conducted using subjective method, such as self-reporting of utilization, or surrogate measures, such as user satisfaction. High system utilization or high user satisfaction provides no guarantee of high performance. This study reports initial research relating system utilization, measured as a continuous and...

This paper illustrates an evaluation methodology for DSS software selection. The methodology incorporates three stages: (1) DSS software screening; (2) generator evaluation; and, (3) specific DSS design. Initially, developing a short list through screening of DSS software determines whether an appropriate package exists and narrows the field of ava...

The United States Coast Guard operates a voluntary vessel movement reporting system on the lower Mississippi River. Designed to assist vessel operators navigate a treacherous inland waterway, this decision support system (DSS) informs mariners of known traffic and provides other pertinent assistance. As employed in this postimplementation review, t...