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Data mining can discover information hidden within valuable data assets. Knowledge discovery, using advanced information technologies, can uncover veins of surprising, golden insights in a mountain of factual data. Data mining consists of a panoply of powerful tools which are intuitive, easy to explain, understandable, and simple to use. These advanced information technologies include artificial intelligence methods (e.g. expert systems, fuzzy logic, etc.), decision trees, rule induction methods, genetic algorithms and genetic programming, neural networks (e.g. backpropagation, associate memories, etc.), and clustering techniques. The synergy created between data warehousing and data mining allows knowledge seekers to leverage their massive data assets, thus improving the quality and effectiveness of their decisions. The growing requirements for data mining and real time analysis of information will be a driving force in the development of new data warehouse architectures and methods and, conversely, the development of new data mining methods and applications.

Unlike other computer‐based information systems, expert systems (ES) are characterized by the satisficing and conservative behavior of their users. Shows that the learning curve may be used to model user dependency on ES technology. Even though user dependency relates to ES quality control parameters (for example, Raggad’s 13 ES quality attributes) only dynamic or late binding features really affect ES dependency: ES learning capability and ES recommendation anticipation. There is hence a learning race between the system and the user. If user learning prevails, then there will be user defection. If system learning prevails, then there will be system perfection. Proposes failure analysis based on user defection due to the absence or underutilization of machine learning. ES owners can adopt this model to design a subsystem capable of transforming user defection analysis into a strategic plan for ES management.

Identifies key activities that network users can perform in order to use the network effectively. Offers recommended reading, from beginner to expert user status. Explains some commonly used terms (e.g. Turbo Gopher with Veronica!). Lists useful Internet resources.

Kazakhstan has taken considerable steps to improve the incoming mobility of international students; however, despite these measures, the number of international students studying in Kazakhstan is still very low. Research indicates that in order to attract and retain international students it is necessary to build a thorough understanding of their experiences in the host country. The purpose of this paper is to gain a better understanding of international students’ experiences in Kazakhstan by exploring how they exercise their human agency while adapting to the academic and socio-cultural life in Kazakhstan.

The author used a purposeful criterion sampling to select six international students from Afghanistan, Great Britain, Russia, South Korea, Ukraine and the USA studying at Kazakhstani universities to participate in this research. The primary data collection was semi-structured in-depth interviews. Supportive methods included a demographic questionnaire and a researcher journal.

The study revealed that the international students actively employed their human agency to negotiate their studying and to adapt to their life in Kazakhstan. They did not simply adjust to the host environment, but also learned from it and attempted to transform it according to their circumstances and goals.

The implication is that Kazakhstani universities and any other higher education institutions that seek to increase the number of their international students should consider not only how to attract these students, but also how to adapt their institution’s practices and regulations to create an inclusive learning environment for their diverse student population. It is also very important for higher education institutions to provide international students with the necessary conditions to exercise their human agency because as it was revealed by this study, international students’ human agency is a very powerful mechanism helping them live and learn comfortably in their host country.

Taking into consideration the reviewed previous research, this was the first attempt to use Albert Bandura’s social cognitive theory for the purpose of building an understanding about how international students exercise their agency while adapting to the academic and socio-cultural life in the host country. The social cognitive theory allows investigating international students as active and self-sufficient agents of their own adaptation process who can and do change themselves, and have the potential to navigate and alter their host environment to achieve their own goals. This study encourages researchers and practitioners to think about international students outside the dimension of internationalization as a means of improving country’s economic capital.

Previous research on auditors’ processing of nondiagnostic evidence demonstrates the existence of a dilution effect – the tendency to underreact to diagnostic information when accompanied by nondiagnostic information. Prior audit studies find that accountability, a prominent feature in audit settings, does not affect the magnitude of the dilution effect exhibited by auditors. Based on more recent theories about accountability, this line of research is extended by exploring whether (1) the dilution effect previously identified is a robust phenomenon that can be replicated, (2) accountability has an impact on both the frequency and magnitude of dilution effect, and (3) the impact of accountability on both the frequency and magnitude of dilution effect is conditional on the degree of accountability experienced by the participants through various reporting levels. The experimental results from a sample of internal auditors provide evidence supporting the first two propositions; however, the results related to reporting levels are not significant. A discussion of the implications of these findings for audit research and practice follows.