Meudon, February 7, 2004
Mr. Jean-Jacques KASPARIAN
Btiment F,
2, rue du Bel Air,
F-92190 MEUDON
Mail : Jean-Jacques.Kasparian@LaPoste.net


TECHNICAL NOTE OF EXPERT SYSTEM "DUPRAT" 
(Version 2.7 of february 2004)

To install the program on your PC.
You received the software "Duprat" in the shape of the zip file "JJK4duen.exe", which is self-expansible ; you launched the execution of this program, and you obtained the repertory "c:\temp\Duprat" (or the repertory "Duprat" in any other place). 

To launch the installation itself, it remains you to double-click on the procedure : "c:\temp\duprat\Install.bat". The installation is made (the 14 files of the software are gathered under "c:\Program Files\jjk\Duprat27 \" and you find an icon "Duprat" on the desk).

To use the program.
=> To use the program, double-click on the icon and let you guide. The possible operations will be indicated in bottom of the screen.
=> Three frequently put questions : 

1/- Is-it really necessary to answer all the questions of the questionnaire?
- Not necessarily. But, the result will be better if you give more information. It is important in particular to well indicate : by the note "0", the symptoms which you know absent, and by the sign "-", the questions which you cannot answer. 

2/- Why these notes from 0 to 9 ? Which relationship with degrees 1, 2, 3, of Kent ? 
- The Kents' degrees are not quantitative numbers but qualitative numbers of classes. They were allotted to the remedies (and the signs) according to the number of cases observed, but according to geometric progression (a remedy is with degree 3 if it were observed 2 times more often than a remedy of degree 2, itself observed 2 times more often qu' a degree of degree 1). These degrees not being quantitative numbers, it is not legitimate to add them.
- But, to function, this software requires that the indicated notes be proportional to the numbers of observations : a sign noted 8 must be observed twice more often than a sign noted 4, itself observed twice more often than a sign noted 2. 
- In practice, I translated degrees 1, 2 and 3 of Kent respectively by notes 2, 4 and 8. 

3/- Why this distinction between "0" and "-"? Which is the impact on the found solution? 
This distinction is important :
--- The "0" means : "I know that the patient does not have this symptom, whereas it could very well have had it". This answer will inflect the result with the manner of a eliminative symptom. 
--- The "-" means : "I cannot answer. Either that I miss information, or that the question does not have a direction for this patient, or whom I do not include/understand the question". This answer will remain neutral for the choice of the remedy; it will inflect the choice neither in a direction nor in the other.
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