Technology report: PHAROS: Business adviser

The Single European Market is both the single largest opportunity and the single largest threat to face European companies in the 1990s. The survival of many companies will depend on how well they address these opportunities and react to these threats. First, they need to understand the Single Market issues and legislation, but expertise in these areas is expensive and rare. Many organisations, particularly smaller ones or those affected by the recession cannot afford to pay for this experience.This paper describes PHAROS, an Expert System which advises small to medium sized companies on how changes in Single European Market and Environmental legislation will affect their business. PHAROS was developed by National Westminster Bank and Ernst & Young Management Consultants. To date, PHAROS has cost over £2 million to develop and distribute.PHAROS achieved international acclaim when it was presented at the American Association of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI) 1992 conference as one of the most Innovative Applications of Artificial Intelligence. PHAROS was also a medal winner in the 1992 British Computer Society Awards.     

Bookisms:

In this issue we review three books, two of which deal with knowledge and knowledge management and the third deals with the many collaboration techniques coming to market. The first two are solid works by people who are leaders in the field, including Laurence Prusak, coauthor with Tom Davenport of the most widely read Knowledge management book (Davenport and Prusak, 1995) published in the United States (see review in Volume 15, No. 3, Summer 1998 issue of ISM) and Ikujiro Nonaka (1991) from Japan who wrote the original knowledge management article in Harvard Business Review. The third book, Wikinomics, by Don Tapscott and coauthor, praises collaboration developments from Wikis to MySpace and beyond, written in a breathless, advertising style that may not appeal to everyone.     

Anecdotes: Magnavox and Intel: An Odyssey

Today we have high-resolution videogames connected to our television sets, but let us reflect on a pioneering system in this field from 30 years ago. As an Intel applications engineer in 1976, my job (Mazor) was to find new customer applications for microcomputers and to translate customer needs to chip designers like Peter Salmon, who used our technology to solve customer problems. Analog integrated circuits (ICs) were prominently used in the entertainment products, but digital circuits were just making their debut particularly with digital readouts for time, station, and counters.     

Bookisms:

In this issue we review three books, two of which deal with knowledge and knowledge management and the third deals with the many collaboration techniques coming to market. The first two are solid works by people who are leaders in the field, including Laurence Prusak, coauthor with Tom Davenport of the most widely read Knowledge management book (Davenport and Prusak, 1995) published in the United States (see review in Volume 15, No. 3, Summer 1998 issue of ISM) and Ikujiro Nonaka (1991) Nonaka, I. 1991. The knowledge creating company.. Harvard Business Review, : 96–104. November-December). [Google Scholar] from Japan who wrote the original knowledge management article in Harvard Business Review. The third book, Wikinomics, by Don Tapscott and coauthor, praises collaboration developments from Wikis to MySpace and beyond, written in a breathless, advertising style that may not appeal to everyone.     

Part II: Honeypots in Detail: the Variations

Dario ForteThere are different types of honeypots; they vary in terms of management methods and monitoring responsibility.     

Special Feature: Monitoring Program Execution: A Survey

Progress in this realm of performance measurement has lagged behind advances in the general field of programming languages: careful study of its capabilities and limitations is long overdue.     

Radiation transfer in the fluid frame: A covariant formulation: Part I: Radiation hydrodynamics

The equations of radiation hydrodynamics are developed with a tensor formalism. This development includes a review of the current literature in this field, written in a common notation and having the underlying assumptions of each result explicitly stated.     

k-out-of-n: G system with repair: the D-policy

In this paper we consider a k-out-of-n: G system with repair under D-policy. According to this policy whenever the workload exceeds a threshold D a server is called for repair and starts repair one at a time. He is sent back as soon as all the failed units are repaired. The repaired units are assumed to be as good as new. The repair time and failure time distributions are assumed to be exponential. We obtain the system state distribution, system reliability, expected length of time the server is continuously available, expected number of times the system is down in a cycle and several other measures of performance. We compute the optimal D value which maximizes a suitably defined cost function.Scope and purposeThis paper considers a repair policy, called D-policy, of a k-out-of-n: G system. In a k-out-of-n: G system, the system functions as long as there are atleast k operational units. The server activation cost is high once it becomes idle due to all failed units repaired. Hence it is activated when the accumulated amount of work reaches D. This paper examines the optimal D-value by bringing in costs such as the cost of system being down, the server activation cost. Activating the server the moment the first failure takes place may involve very heavy fixed cost per cycle (a cycle is the duration from a point at which the server becomes idle to the next epoch at which it becomes idle after being activated). The other extreme of server activation only after n−k+1 units fail leads to the system being down for a long duration in each cycle. Hence the need for the optimal D-policy. A brief account of k-out-of-n: G system can be had in Ross (Ross, SM. Introduction to probability models, 6th ed., New York: Academic Press, 1997). The results obtained here find direct applications in reliability engineering, Production systems, Satellite communication, etc.     

ARIFS:: an Environment for Incomplete and Formal Specifications

The selection of appropriate components for satisfying a given equirement is a key problem in software reuse. Although this problem is remarkable in the reuse of software within same domain or application area, which is known as vertical reuse, it is more pronounced in horizontal reuse, that is, the reuse of software elements in different application areas. This paper describes how ARIFS tool (Approximate Retrieval of Incomplete and Formal Specifications) provides a suitable reusing environment to classify, retrieve and adapt formal and incomplete requirements specifications. Both classification and retrieval tasks are based on functional similarities according to structural closeness, which provides a suitable basis for horizontal reuse; and semantic closeness, which is more appropriated for vertical reuse. To this effect, we define four partial ordering relations among reusable components and different measures to quantify functional differences among them. By using these measures we are able to offer an approximate and efficient retrieval, without formal proofs, and to predict adaptation efforts to satisfy the required functional specification.     

Multisensor on-the-fly localization:: Precision and reliability for applications

This paper presents an approach for localization using geometric features from a 360° laser range finder and a monocular vision system. Its practicability under conditions of continuous localization during motion in real time (referred to as on-the-fly localization) is investigated in large-scale experiments. The features are infinite horizontal lines for the laser and vertical lines for the camera. They are extracted using physically well-grounded models for all sensors and passed to a Kalman filter for fusion and position estimation. Positioning accuracy close to subcentimeter has been achieved with an environment model requiring 30 bytes/m². Already with a moderate number of matched features, the vision information was found to further increase this precision, particularly in the orientation. The results were obtained with a fully self-contained system where extensive tests with an overall length of more than 6.4 km and 150,000 localization cycles have been conducted. The final testbed for this localization system was the Computer 2000 event, an annual computer tradeshow in Lausanne, Switzerland, where during 4 days visitors could give high-level navigation commands to the robot via a web interface. This gave us the opportunity to obtain results on long-term reliability and verify the practicability of the approach under application-like conditions. Furthermore, general aspects and limitations of multisensor on-the-fly localization are discussed.     

Transition metal oxide electrochromic materials and displays: a review: Part 1: oxides with cathodic coloration

Thin films of a number of transition metal oxides, when employed as electrodes in the appropriate electrochemical cells, exhibit electrochromism by a reversible ion-insertion mechanism. These oxides may be divided into two groups, those which colour cathodically by a reduction process, and those which colour anodically by an oxidation process. At present the former class is known to contain the oxides of W, Mo, V, Nb and Ti, whereas those of Ir, Rh, Ni and Co are contained in the latter class. A two-part in-depth review is given of the electrochromic behaviour of thin films of these oxides. This part of the paper considers cathodically coloured oxides, with anodically coloured oxides the subject of the second part. Special attention is given to tunstic oxides as the most studied example and as a model for the behaviour of other members of its class. Significant advances in the understanding and development of electrochromic displays are highlighted. Fabrication and performance of display electrode and complete display cells based on these materials is described and compared, suggestion put forward regarding the most promising electrochromic material/electrolyte combinations for further study. Emphasis is placed on the method and details of film deposition or growth which determine film stoichiometry (including moisture content) and morphology and in turn strongly influence electrochromic behaviour.     

自适应Web站点：挑战与机遇

1 引言万维网(World Wide Web)已经成为信息传播、交流与共享的主要媒体。在全球Web站点数目迅速增长的同时,各个Web站点的信息量及其复杂度也在迅速上升,包含成千上万个网页与超链接是很平常的。由于以下的因素,数据密集型Web站点的设计与管理也变得越来越困难:     

Transition metal oxide electrochromic materials and displays: a review: Part 2: oxides with anodic coloration

Thin films of a number of transition metal oxides, when employed as electrodes in the appropriate electrochemical cells, exhibit electrochromism by a reversible ion-insertion mechanism. Cathodically colouring oxides were covered in the first part of this review¹. Oxides which colour anodically by an oxidation process, ie those of Ir, Rh, Ni and Co, are considered here. Special attention is given to iridium oxide as the most studied example and as behaviour model. Significant advances in the understanding and development of electrochromic displays are highlighted. Fabrication and performance of display electrode and complete display cells based on these materials is described and compared, and suggestions put forward regarding the most promising electrochromic material/electrolyte combinations for further study. Emphasis is placed on the method and details of film deposition or growth which determine film stoichiometry (including moisture content) and morphology and in turn strongly influence electrochromic behaviour.     

Editors' introduction: Comparative software engineering: Review and perspectives

Engineering is a set of disciplines seeking solutions for complicated problems and systems that could not be done by individuals. The aim of engineering is to repetitively produce complicated artefacts in an efficient way. This paper describes a set of generic engineering principles and an engineering maturity model. With the engineering principles and model, the nature and status of software engineering are analysed. Interesting findings on what software engineering can learn from generic engineering principles are presented. This paper intends to show the nature, status and problems of software engineering, as well as its future trends, based on the comparative studies between the generic engineering principles and software engineering practices. This revised version was published online in June 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Part 4: Reinforcement learning: Machine learning and natural learning

The theory of reinforcement learning (RL) was originally motivated by animal learning of sequential behavior, but has been developed and extended in the field of machine learning as an approach to Markov decision processes. Recently, a number of neuroscience studies have suggested a relationship between reward-related activities in the brain and functions necessary for RL. Regarding the history of RL, we introduce in this article the theory of RL and present two engineering applications. Then we discuss possible implementations in the brain.     

Superelastic shell structures modelling: Part I: Element formulation

A C⁰ three-node shell finite element belonging to the assumed shear strain elements family is extended to account for large strains when a rotating frame formulation is adopted to describe the material behaviour. Within an incremental method associated with the Newton iterative scheme, a strain measure is defined and interpolated in an intermediate configuration assuming a linear interpolation of the incremental geometric transformation. This strain measure allows the definition, in a rotated configuration, of a constitutive incremental strain obtained from a material cumulated tensorial strain. The proposed approach is validated herein considering several elastic finite strains examples.     

Adaptability: Reflections

Conclusion The conclusion to be drawn from the preceding observations and theorizing should be that we must be very much aware of what has been called “technological functionalism” (Pieper, 1986:11). While functionalism as such is not bad, the moment it succumbs to mere structural technicality, the functions stop functioning: forced “adaptivity” takes the place of “adaptable” interaction. That this problem is not due to a primordial blame, to be attached to the computer, becomes clear when one compares the computerized environment to other surroundings, such as, for example, the psychiatric treatment. In the psychiatric interview, as Davis (1986, 1988) has shown, the interest of the therapist is often limited to establishing a “contract” for treatment: for the therapist to function properly, there must be a therapy-defined (or therapy-definable) problem for him/her to attack, using the skills and experiences of the profession of which he/she is a representative and for which he/she has been properly trained. This function, however, may not coincide with the patient's needs: it may well be the case that the problem which originally caused the patient to approach the therapist for treatment, in the end turns out not to be the problem that both agree on as the objective of the therapeutic treatment. “Re-formulating” the patients' problem in terms suitable to the available resources and techniques is thus typically a case of adapting the human to the system: again, we're faced with technological functionalism in the shape of what has been called “forced adaptivity” (see Mey, 1986). We need to think seriously about the way we handle our computerized structures and their functions, and in particular about the design of supportive systems such as large databases, computer conferencing, or even simple electronic mail services. While adaptivity always is a case of manipulation, by which humans are tooled to the needs and strictures of the computer, adaptability, by contrast, allows such manipulation only inasmuch as those needs and strictures reflect, and are imposed by, the users' needs. The blind, mechanical force that makes us adapt ourselves to the machine should be replaced by the enlightened, humanizing force of the adaptable computer.     

Endpaper: FRPOLY: A benchmark revisited

The FRPOLY Lisp performance benchmark [3] was based on a circa-1968 piece of code for computing powers of polynomials. We address two questions: (a) What algorithm would you use if you really wanted to compute powers of polynomials fast? and (b) Given that Common Lisp supports many types of data structures other than the simple lists used for the benchmark, what more efficient representations might be appropriate to use for polynomials?     

Special Theme: Project Management in E-Science: Challenges and Opportunities

In this introduction to the special theme: Project Management in e-Science: Challenges and Opportunities, we argue that the role of project management and different forms of leadership and facilitation can influence significantly the nature of cooperation and its outcomes and deserves further research attention. The quality of social interactions such as communication, cooperation, and coordination, have emerged as key factors in developing and deploying e-science infrastructures and applications supporting large-scale and distributed collaborative scientific research. If software is seen to embody the relational web within which it evolves, and if the processes of software design, development and deployment are seen as ongoing transformations of this dynamic web of relationships between technology, people and environment, the role of managers becomes crucial: it is their responsibility to balance and facilitate the dynamics of these relationships.