AN INTEGRATED RULE-BASED AND CASE-BASED APPROACH TO AIDS INITIAL ASSESSMENT

The traditional approach to the development of knowledge-based systems (KBS) has been rule-based, where heuristic knowledge is encoded in a set of production rules. A rule-based reasoning (RBR) system needs a w ell constructed domain theory as its reasoning basis, and it does not make substantial use of the knowledge embedded in previous cases. An R BR system performs relatively well in a knowledge-rich application env ironment. Although its capability may be limited when previous experie nces are not a good representation of the whole population, a case-bas ed reasoning (CBR) system is capable of using past experiences as prob lem solving tools, therefore, it is appropriate for an experience-rich domain. In recent years, both RBR and CBR have emerged as important a nd complementary reasoning methodologies in artificial intelligence. F or problem solving in AIDS intervention and prevention, it is useful t o integrate RBR and CBR. In this paper, a hybrid KBS which integrates a deductive RBR system and an inductive CBR system is proposed to asse ss AIDS-risky behaviors.