Architecture and Design of Expert System for Quality of Life Evaluation

Abstract

This article presents an architectural framework of an expert system (ES) in the social area domain and describes the design of the ES, using the shell Expert System for Text Animation (ESTA). The designed system is intended for the evaluation of quality of life (QL). The development of ES for QL evaluation is a new information technology derived from artificial intelligent research, using ESTA system with application in social area domain. The proposed ES contains knowledge about sets of factors (objective conditions and subjective perception) and indicators, which may be used to QL measure, as followings: equal protection of the law; freedom from discrimination; right to be treated equally without regard to gender, race, language, religion, political beliefs, nationality, socioeconomic status and more; right to privacy; freedom of thought; free choice of employment; right to fair pay; equal pay for equal work; right to vote; right to rest and leisure; right to education. The system is developed in the ESTA, which is Visual Prolog 7.3 Application. The knowledge for the ES will be acquired from domain experts, texts and other related sources.Keywords: Expert System, ESTA, Quality of Life, Knowledge Base1 IntroductionIn recent decades, considerable efforts have been made to create intellectual and ex- pert programs simulating the professional ac- tivity of a man. ESs can be used in those fields of man's activity or at such stages of data processing, where it is difficult to devel- op and use a single algorithm for solving a complex problem or where one has to use fuzzy data.In any social system, accumulation and inte- gration of related knowledge and information from many diverse sources play important role. Social specialists and raw experiences are the common sources to provide infor- mation that the different stakeholders require for evaluation of quality of life. Social spe- cialists' assistance is not always available when the need arises for their help. In recent years, tools, technologies and applications of information technologies have emerged as ef- ficient and effective measures for the social area specialists. Integration of ES as a power- ful tool for the stakeholders of social area has extensive potential. The main concern of the present study is the design of an ES for inter- pretation of knowledge about way of living. The system background starts with the col- lection of different factors and indicators connecting to QL from social experts, econ- omists and literature. The acquired knowledge is represented to an expert system in Prolog based expert system shell ESTA in order to the knowledge base to be developed. This article presents the conceptual frame- work of QL. The main goal of this research is to gather and integrate a lot of information for the social area in one place.2 Expert Systems in Social Area DomainThe applications of ES are rapidly increasing. Such applications are very effective in situa- tions when the domain expert is not readily available. In social area, the applications of ESs are mainly found in the fields as the dis- ease diagnosis, the diseases prevention and control, teaching and education, end etc. Many domain specific ESs are being used at different levels.[20] concerns a class of computing applica- tions, called ESs, which have evolved from the field of artificial intelligence. ES con- cepts, potentials and implications are pre- sented along with the issues involved in their development and use. A simple ES, written in BASIC, is included to illustrate the con- cepts. ES offer great potential for assisting human service professionals in making com- plex decisions.Expert consulting systems in social wel- fare: [21] describes the origins of ESs and their characteristics, explores the circum- stances under which they might be useful in social work, and considers several issues and problems in their application. Although the use of expert consulting systems for planning casework activities is emphasized, the ideas are applicable as well to other areas of social work. …