On the automatic generation of optimal internal schemata

A Data Base Design, problem using the most modern techniques is usually divided into Conceptual Schema Design, External Schemata Design and Internal Schema Design. Currently, each of these design steps is done manually with few computerised aids.A method is described for deriving automatically the Internal Schema from the Conceptual and External Schemata. The method is proved to generate the optimal Internal Schema and to be easily amendable to updates in the Conceptual and External Schemata.     

Navigational facilities for relational data base

Charles Bachman's great idea of navigation in a data base is applied to the relational data model. This idea, understood as a way of user thinking, is formulated in such a manner, that no physical concepts are introduced to the user's awareness. Thus the demanded level of data independence is not reduced.A concept of “navigational statement” is defined. The navigational statements may be used to improve other relational languages, for example SEQUEL. It is shown that navigational statements simplify the grammar structure of language expressions and make them shorter and more readable. Elliptic (incomplete) navigational statements are also defined. Such statements may be regarded as a good tool for the casual user.This paper may be viewed as a (not necessarily complete) review of possibilities related to the idea of navigation in a relational data base.     

Automatic construction and optimization of knowledge mesh for self-reconfiguration of knowledgeable manufacturing system

This paper deals with an approach to the automatic construction and optimization of the knowledge mesh (KM) based on the user’s function requirements. Once a KM multiple set operation expression is obtained, a new KM can be inferred from the expression by the developed KM-based inference engine and transformed into its corresponding KMS (knowledgeable manufacturing system) software automatically by the developed automatic program construction software so as to realize the self-reconfiguration of the KMS. Thus, the automatic construction and optimization of a KM multiple set operation expression is equivalent to the automatic construction and optimization of its corresponding KM and KMS software. To explore the automatic construction and optimization of the new KM by the user’s function requirements, an automatic construction procedure of a KM aiming at the user’s maximum function-satisfaction is proposed. Firstly, the fuzzy function-satisfaction degree relationships of the users’ requirements for the KM functions are defined, and so are the multiple fuzzy function-satisfaction degrees of the relationships. Secondly, operations (union, intersection and minus) on both fuzzy and multiple fuzzy function-satisfaction degrees are proposed and clarified, along with the proof that there exists a one-to-one mapping between the KM multiple set operation expression and the KM-function-satisfaction degree expression. Then, the optimization model of the KM multiple set operation expression is constructed and proved to be very NP-hard. And finally, the KM multiple set operation expression is optimized by the hybrid genetic-tabu algorithm, with the steps of the KM’s automatic construction presented in detail as well. Based upon the above, the KM’s automatic construction and optimization are illustrated by an actual KM example which corresponds to the management information system (MIS) software used in a vehicle body plant. The proposed approach proves to be very effective.     

Industrial Engineering and information systems

The Industrial Engineer has a well established reputation for effective computer utilization in the areas of scheduling, simulation, inventory control, forecasting and operations research. The I.E.'s role in developing and maintaining computerized administrative information systems is less visible. In the current data processing environment, computer center personnel and users are the sole developers of the organization's information systems. Their skills include, and are usually limited to, knowledge of the technical intricacies of the computer and the user's system. These skills, though necessary, are not sufficient to create an information system in the most effective manner. The additional skills and techniques required to fully complement the systems development process are, for the most part, traditional industrial engineering functions. If effectively utilized, the I.E. can increase productivity in computer center operations and user activities by as much as 50–100%.     

Connecting a computer to a packet-switched network by means of a finite-state automaton

Many data networks offer the X.25 network access protocol. The users of such networks must support X.25 in order to take advantage of the packet-switching facilities. When a finite-state automaton is used as the architecture for the user's support, several advantages accrue. The directed graph which defines the actions of the automaton coincides with the state-change diagram that describes X.25. This leads to straightforward design and testing of the X.25 support software. Also the varying types of user's equipment that attach to the network can have compatible subsets of the X.25 support, depending on their power requirements.The paper outlines the X.25 protocol proposed by the CCITT and discussed the use of a finite-state automaton as the architectural model for the level 3 support software.The ‘funnel machine’ method of software construction and the implementation of support software are also discussed.     

Digit: A computational package for digital system design

To facilitate the analysis and design of digital control systems, the FORTRAN IV package DIGIT[1] is developed to transform analog process models into digital transfer functions. Of interest are the impulse and step invariant filters of digital signal processing and the trapezoidal approximation of the step invariant filter. The pertinent algorithms are developed; the program is highlighted and a user's guide is included. Application of the computational package is illustrated through a sequence of examples.     

公共元素模型数据类型的XML Schema描述

AI-ESTATE标准中采用EXPRESS语言对其诊断知识进行描述,但EXPRESS不是程序设计语言,导致采用EXPRESS语言描述的诊断知识难以用程序设计实现,为诊断知识的共享和重用造成了一定困难;XML语言以其良好的灵活性、可读性和可扩展性,为信息交换带来了很大的方便,将EXPRESS语言映射为XML Schema,对诊断知识的共享意义重大.首先,分析了EXPRESS语言和XML Schema的数据类型;然后,分别研究了EXPRESS中简单数据类型、聚合数据类型和构造数据类型到XML数据类型的映射机制;最后,在分析AI-ESTATE标准公共元素模型数据类型的基础上,研究了将公共元素模型的诊断知识用XML Schema标准化描述的过程,实现了诊断知识的可移植和重用.     

A fact dependency system for the logic programmer

We describe experimental work in logic programming for architects, leading to the setting up of a fact dependency system. The system operates as an interpreter of the user's instructions, storing his decision and the conclusions inferred from those decisions. Consistency from a user's point of view is automatically maintained. A separate introduction to the Prolog logic programming language is appended to this paper.     

The integration of network data base management and problem resolution

The value and nature of a mixed approach to knowledge representation is examined. The mixed approach utilizes data base techniques and expressions in first-order predicate calculus. The nature of a general problem processor that can use information organized according to the mixed approach is discussed and illustrated. The user's language interface with this problem processor is non-procedural and English-like. The utilization of predicate calculus axioms for data integrity and program module management is also explored.     

Information semantics and the conceptual schema

The semantics of various proposals for Conceptual Schema languages are compared and contrasted. Concepts are defined using logic and class theory notation, so that terminology is reduced to a common basis. A basis for handling temporal aspects of an Information System is provided.     

The use of lexical semantics in interlingual machine translation

This paper describes the lexical-semantic basis for UNITRAN, an implemented scheme for translating Spanish, English, and German bidirectionally. Two claims made here are that the current representation handles many distinctions (or divergences) across languages without recourse to language-specific rules and that the lexical-semantic framework provides the basis for a systematic mapping between the interlingua and the syntactic structure. The representation adopted is an extended version of lexical conceptual structure which is suitable to the task of translating between divergent structures for two reasons: (1) it provides an abstraction of language-independent properties from structural idiosyncrasies; and (2) it is compositional in nature. The lexical-semantic approach addresses the divergence problem by using a linguistically grounded mapping that has access to parameter settings in the lexicon. We will examine a number of relevant issues including the problem of defining primitives, the issue of interlinguality, the cross-linguistic coverage of the system, and the mapping between the syntactic structure and the interlingua. A detailed example of lexical-semantic composition will be presented.     

Computation of thermodynamic mixing parameters for isostructural,binary crystalline solutions using solvus experimental data

FORTRAN IV subroutines are presented for calculating the mixing parameters of the two-parameter Margules, van Laar, and quasichemical solution models. For isostructural, binary crystalline solutions the mixing parameters of these models are calculated using experimental data on the compositions and equilibration temperatures (K) of the two phases in binary “solvus-pairs”. However, the equations used in the calculations are different for each model, and computational methods range from direct calculation (Margules and van Laar models), to solution of two simultaneous nonlinear equations (quasichemical model). Most of the subroutines have been written so that they can be incorporated easily into a user's linear least-squares regression program to compute equations relating a set of values for a parameter to temperature, or temperature and pressure.Crystal structure plays an important role in the calculation of mixing parameters for the three solution models. For solvi among phases of different structure, mixing-parameter values should be calculated using not only the compositions and equilibration temperatures of the two phases in solvus-pairs, but also the values for the differences in free energies of the crystal structures in the standard state. Some thermodynamic theory of mutual solubility among binary crystalline phases of like and unlike structure will be described in detail.     

Conceptual Modeling in the eXtreme

Conceptual Modeling-based methods and their corresponding CASE tools have traditionally had one main weak point: the use of different notations for the problem space system view (centered on the what the system is) and the solution space view (centered on the how it is to be represented). The real value of Conceptual Modeling, from a pragmatic perspective, is lost due to these different notations and the complex and often ambiguous paths required to go from one view to another. To overcome this problem, a Conceptual Schema should be a precise representation of the user requirements and should also be executable. This means that the programming tasks are really done at a higher level of abstraction, using Conceptual Modeling constructs. In this paper, we present a Conceptual Modeling in the Extreme approach for automatic software production this approach focuses the developer's efforts in the Requirements and Conceptual Modeling phases in an extreme way. This approach together with a Conceptual Model Compiler strategy produces a fully executable application.     

Course ontology-based user’s knowledge requirement acquisition from behaviors within e-learning systems

User’s knowledge requirement acquisition and analysis are very important for a personalized or user-adaptive learning system. Two approaches to capture user’s knowledge requirement about course content within an e-learning system are proposed and implemented in this paper. The first approach is based on the historical data accumulated by an interactive question-answering process. The association space is proposed to record and formalize the historical interactive information which is used to compute user’s knowledge requirement. The second approach is based on user’s reading behavior logs in the process of reading e-documents. User’s reading actions including underline, highlight, circle, annotation and bookmark, are used to compute user’s knowledge requirement. Two experiments are conducted to implement the two proposed approaches and acquire the user’s knowledge requirement. The evaluation results show that the user models computed by two approaches are consistent and can reflect user’s real knowledge requirements accurately.     

大结构元素二值形态学基本操作改进算法

二值图像的数学形态学方法应用广泛,但当涉及的图像和结构元素较大时,操作速度变慢。针对结构元素参考点包括在结构元素中且为单一连通区域的大结构元素,提出了二值形态学膨胀操作的改进算法,首先提取待膨胀二值区域的轮廓,然后对轮廓进行膨胀,再将膨胀结果与原二值区域取并集得到总的膨胀结果;证明了改进膨胀算法与标准膨胀操作的等价性;基于膨胀与腐蚀操作的对偶关系给出了改进的腐蚀算法;给出了改进的开、闭运算算法。在80张高分辨率植物叶片二值图像上进行了腐蚀、膨胀、开运算和闭运算标准方法和改进算法的对比实验,结果表明改进算法可显著提高二值形态学处理的速度。