Container control and cargo clearance using computer packages

The rate of growth in the number of containers shipped through the world's ports has, in recent years, necessitated the introduction of handling systems which are increasingly sophisticated. Computerisation has brought about a revolution in the efficiency of box handling by speeding communications, smoothing documentation and improving container selection and location. In this paper existing computer packages in UK ports based on simple database management are reviewed. These packages are non-transferrable to any other port. A generalized approach using Relational DBMS available commercially has been considered for possible applications.     

A computational environment for the management, processing, and analysis of geological data

The complexity and diversity of data and processing now being used in geoscientific data analysis are increasing at such a pace that it is difficult to maintain a single software package capable of performing all required tasks. A typical solution is to use a number of commercial software packages loosely linked via file format conversion routines or other customized communication paths. Creating and maintaining these paths is made difficult by both the number of distinct packages being used and the evolutionary changes taking place within each package. In this paper we attempt to create a generic model for a geological data processing task, identify some of the difficulties involved in performing these tasks using current technology, and outline a computational architecture that may correct many of the deficiencies of existing technology. Our goal is not to provide a detailed design but to present some key issues and possible solutions as a foundation for discussion and investigation.     

DISPRO: A discrete programming package

Conclusions The DISPRO package is open for modification and further development. Its modular structure allows expansion of the source language, incorporation of new system and application modules, realization in the current version of an interface with DBMS and other application packages (e.g., report generator, matrix generator), synthesis of the package with PL/1 and FORTRAN IV programming systems.The first version of DISPRO released in 1980 has successfully passed the requisite acceptance tests and is now officially part of the optimization packages supported by ES series computers. As outlined in this article, the package has tremendous possibilities for solving a wide range of discrete optimization problems. So far, certain classes of discrete programming problems could be solved by LP ASU [31], VEKTOR-1, the Z-system [58], and TsP [31] application packages. In addition, some packages have been developed in recent years for mathematical programming and operations research (DISPLAN, an interactive planning system [60]; PTP, optimization of transportation problems [58]; PMP, separable and parametric linear programming; DILOS, interactive system for unconstrained optimization, nonlinear programming, and optimal control; ORBITAL', unconstrained optimization and approximation [61]; NDO, nondifferentiable and stochastic optimization [62]; and other less known packages reviewed, in particular, in [58].New optimization packages are currently being developed in response to increased demands for quality, efficiency, and applicability in various MIS and ADPS. The next version of the DISPRO package is being designed on the basis of the appropriate principles and requirements for modern method-oriented packages, including accumulation and analysis of package performance data (these data may be used to improve the package software and structure), large dimensionality of the relevant problems, operating reliability, commercial development of packages, and their usability in integrated data processing systems.In conclusion, DISPRO was developed by the concerted effort of a large team. In particular, we should mention the contributions of Yu. M. Ermol'ev, V. L. Volkovich, A. I. Kuksa, Yu. Yu. Chervak, N. S. Podgorodetskaya, E. S. Karpinka, V. M. Sementsova, V. I. Artemenko, and other members of the team.Translated from Kibernetika, No. 3, pp. 117–137, May–June, 1981.     

Transportable package software

Package programs allow people who are not computer experts to use the power of machine computation for specialized purposes. Because the designers of scientific packages are more often experts in their scientific field than in computing, they may ignore issues of transportability and ease-of-use until too late, and produce a package that is difficult to use, and difficult to move to a different computer. In this paper we suggest some techniques to aid the scientific package designer. We suggest a kernel of routines that interface to the peculiar operating system of each machine, providing sophisticated but standard operating system services. This kernel makes the operating system of each computer appear identical and does not pose a difficult implementation problem. Above this interface all code can be machine-independent, without sacrificing power and ease of use on any machine. We also suggest some novel organizations of processing routines designed to make the system easy to alter and extend. Complete independence of modules encourages centralization of tasks, which is both efficient and essential for easy extension. With this organization, the vast preponderance of package code can be written in machine-independent ANSI FORTRAN. We suggest the use of a preprocessor like RATFOR to make this more pleasant. The paper closes with an application to an image-processing package, in which a major problem is the flexible sequencing of processing routines.     

A simulation model of a sulphuric acid production process as an integrated part of an energy system

Power plant process simulation software is well-suited for the modelling of energy systems and more importantly, tools for analysing the energy efficiency are often built into the software. This work presents the development of a simulation model for a sulphuric acid plant using a commercial software package for power plant process simulation. This will be of value to for instance small consultant and engineering companies involved with audits and analysis of energy systems. For small sized companies the cost of acquiring and maintaining many different specialised software packages will be noticeable. However, companies involved with audits and analysis of energy systems will in most cases have access to at least one software package for power plant process calculations. The use of this kind of software for also modelling chemical plants would be valuable to these companies. The results of this work shows that it is possible to use an inexpensive but powerful power plant process simulation software for modelling a common chemical process as a part of a large energy system.     

Package Fingerprints: A visual summary of package interface usage

ContextObject-oriented languages such as Java, Smalltalk, and C++ structure their programs using packages. Maintainers of large systems need to understand how packages relate to each other, but this task is complex because packages often have multiple clients and play different roles (class container, code ownership, etc.). Several approaches have been proposed, among which the use of cohesion and coupling metrics. Such metrics help identify candidate packages for restructuring; however, they do not help maintainers actually understand the structure and interrelationships between packages.ObjectivesIn this paper, we use pre-attentive processing as the basis for package visualization and see to what extent it could be used in package understanding.MethodWe present the Package Fingerprint, a 2D visualization of the references made to and from a package. The proposed visualization offers a semantically rich, but compact and zoomable views centered on packages. We focus on two views (incoming and outgoing references) that help users understand how the package under analysis is used by the system and how it uses the system.ResultsWe applied these views on four large systems: Squeak, JBoss, Azureus, and ArgoUML. We obtained several interesting results, among which, the identification of a set of recurring visual patterns that help maintainers: (a) more easily identify the role of and the way a package is used within the system (e.g., the package under analysis provides a set of layered services), and (b) detect either problematic situations (e.g., a single package that groups together a large number of basic services) or opportunities for better package restructuring (e.g., removing cyclic dependencies among packages). The visualization generally scaled well and the detection of different patterns was always possible.ConclusionThe proposed visualizations and patterns proved to be useful in understanding and maintaining the different systems we addressed. To generalize to other contexts and systems, a real user study is required.     

A database perspective on geospatial data modeling

We study the representation and manipulation of geospatial information in a database management system (DBMS). The geospatial data model that we use as a basis hinges on a complex object model, whose set and tuple constructors make it efficient for defining not only collections of geographic objects but also relationships among these objects. In addition, it allows easy manipulation of nonbasic types, such as spatial data types. We investigate the mapping of our reference model onto major commercial DBMS models, namely a relational model extended to abstract data types (ADT) and an object-oriented model. Our analysis shows the strengths and limits of the two model types for handling highly structured data with spatial components     

An integrated data base management system for engineering applications based on an extended relational model

Engineering analysis and design of complex systems require the use of large software components. Development, maintenance, and extension of such a software system needs modern design and implementation techniques. Usually a large amount of data is generated. Flow of data is also quite complex, adding further complications in maintenance and extension of the software. A sophisticated data base management system (DBMS) is needed to support data handling during the run-time environment as well as for the integration of various software components. Design and development of such a DBMS needs new concepts and ideas such that efficiency of calculations is not sarcrificed. Degradation in efficiency due to the use of a DBMS can hinder large-scale applications. The paper describes a generalized relational model to handle large matrices and tables that are encountered in numerous engineering applications. A DBMS based on the model is designed and implemented. The system supports run-time data management as well as data sharing among software components. A preliminary evaluation of the system against some existing ones reveals the new concept and design to be quite appropriate for engineering applications. The system is very efficient and compact. Some details of design and performance of the system are given and discussed.     

Hierarchical structures of optimization packages

Conclusions The expanding operational potential of application packages (interactive and multiprocessing disciplines, application in systems with complex environment, processing of large volumes of data) necessitated a transition from the one-level to a hierarchical package model, in line with the increasing complexity of the package structure.Not all the levels are necessarily present in the design of specific packages. For example, packages executing in the batch mode without multiprocessing and user-initiated dialog do not need the process synchronization level, whereas the top level-the process level-is realized by a single process (in the operating system sense) with the structure described in [1–3]. Packages whose programs always fit into the main memory do not need the data management level, i.e., the cluster is realized by an abstract application module. The application program level is missing in those packages where the application programs are prepared in advance, rather than being generated in run time.The proposed structure is not restricted to optimization packages: it may be used to typify other classes of method-oriented packages. Structure-driven package design ensures that the package has the required properties, makes it possible to implement the software-engineering approach to the design process, avoids gross design errors, and simplifies package adaptation to different environments. Moreover, the hierarchical package structure allows a more technological approach to the development process, as it leads to more effective application of the methods of hierarchical, modular, and structured programming.Translated from Kibernetika, No. 2, pp. 35–39, March–April, 1982.     

Godpp: Programs for the presentation and analysis of structural data

The package of FORTRAN programs described provides the field geologist with a system for processing and analyzing orientation data. The facilities offered include the plotting of stereograms, maps and rose diagrams together with rotations and statistical analysis of orientations. Orientation data may be supplied to the package in a variety of frequently used styles. Package facilities are specified by option statements, which the package interprets, that may be supplied in any sequence thus allowing maximum manipulative flexibility. The package has been successfully used to process and analyse structural data from a metamorphic terrain within the Norwegian Caledonides, but may be applied readily to other types of orientation data. The emphasis in writing this package was placed upon the production of usable graphical output, thus replacing tedious manual plotting and drafting tasks. These programs are not designed to undertake sophisticated interpretative operations on orientation data, these tasks remain with the user who will have hopefully more time in which to accomplish them.     

The emergence of the system configurator

As companies move from custom built software to commercial packages, the skills and mindsets required to make applications work have changed. In their emerging role, system configurators reverse the traditional process steps of high-level project management. For example, with a commercial software package, these steps often start with installation, rather than end with it. In this environment, system configurators must have both a strong knowledge of the software package and a keen understanding of the business needs. Having strong players in this pivotal role can mean the difference between successful and unsuccessful system deployments.     

ProcessTalk A natural language interface for industrial applications

Many commercial software packages are available for industrial applications. However, small and medium size enterprises, SME, normally lack the in-house qualified personnel to benefit from such packages. As natural languages are the best means of communication, a natural language interface can therefore be a good means to grant the SME an easy access to the sophisticated computerized software packages, thus alleviating the problem of the lack of qualified personnel and reducing the cost of employees' learning curve. At present, no such interfaces exist.

This paper presents the design of a human-machine interface, ProcessTalk, that would accept natural language commands in a text form, then would invoke and execute the appropriate functional/procedural commands required by the desired commercial software package the same way as qualified analysts and engineers would operate. It also exposes its benefits and some of its industrial applications.     

PARADISE: Big data analytics using the DBMS tightly integrated with the distributed file system

There has been a lot of research on MapReduce for big data analytics. This new class of systems sacrifices DBMS functionality such as query languages, schemas, or indexes in order to maximize scalability and parallelism. However, as high functionality of the DBMS is considered important for big data analytics as well, there have been a lot of efforts to support DBMS functionality in MapReduce. HadoopDB is the only work that directly utilizes the DBMS for big data analytics in the MapReduce framework, taking advantage of both the DBMS and MapReduce. However, HadoopDB does not support sharability for the entire data since it stores the data into multiple nodes in a shared-nothing manner—i.e., it partitions a job into multiple tasks where each task is assigned to a fragment of data. Due to this limitation, HadoopDB cannot effectively process queries that require internode communication. That is, HadoopDB needs to re-load the entire data to process some queries (e.g., 2-way joins) or cannot support some complex queries (e.g., 3-way joins). In this paper, we propose a new notion of the DFS-integrated DBMS where a DBMS is tightly integrated with the distributed file system (DFS). By using the DFS-integrated DBMS, we can obtain sharability of the entire data. That is, a DBMS process in the system can access any data since multiple DBMSs are run on an integrated storage system in the DFS. To process big data analytics in parallel, our approach use the MapReduce framework on top of a DFS-integrated DBMS. We call this framework PARADISE. In PARADISE, we employ a job splitting method that logically splits a job based on the predicate in the integrated storage system. This contrasts with physical splitting in HadoopDB. We also propose the notion of locality mapping for further optimization of logical splitting. We show that PARADISE effectively overcomes the drawbacks of HadoopDB by identifying the following strengths. (1) It has a significantly faster (by up to 6.41 times) amortized query processing performance since it obviates the need to re-load data required in HadoopDB. (2) It supports query types more complex than the ones supported by HadoopDB.     

基于分层排队网络模型的分布式系统性能评价

关于并发或分布式系统的性台匕评价是一个广泛研究的课题,提供有效的数学理论工具、直观的模型描述方法和有效的模型分析方法,是系统性能评价所面临的关键问题。传统的性能模型——排队网络模型已很难分析这样复杂的系统,分层排队网络（Layered Queueing Net,LQN）模型是排队网络模型的扩展,可以用来分析相互依赖任务间的冲突。介绍了分层排队网络模型的原理及研究现状,并以DBMS为例,建立了DBMS的分层排队网络模型。     

Success of software packages in small businesses: an exploratory study

In this paper we develop and use a framework for evaluating the success of microcomputer based integrated administrative software packages in small businesses. The results of an exploratory survey of 66 small business organizations show that small businesses have often been disappointed with their software packages. The disappointment is frequently a result of the inability of the package to adapt to the needs of the company, especially in small businesses of more than 50 employees. For small businesses of less than 20 employees the packages are too difficult to use. These findings indicate that small businesses should place more emphasis on the acquisition, especially the requirements specification, and developers should improve user-friendliness, the quality of support and documentation to fulfil the needs of the smallest of small businesses. The successful implementers—because of their experience—knew their needs, carefully acquired the package, and implemented various parts of it, benefiting from integration. There seem to be no shortcuts to success, but a determined and eager attitude of the personnel can produce success with any of the software packages in our study.     

Evaluation of statistical packages for suitability for use by clinical investigators in medicine

With the increased availability of personal computers and statistical software packages, it is inevitable that there will be increasing attempts by clinical investigators to perform data management and statistical analysis. Reviews of statistical packages are abundant in computer and statistical journals. However the majority of them were not written for clinical investigators in medicine. This paper presents an analytic approach to evaluate the suitability of statistical packages for use by clinical investigators for data-management and preliminary statistical-analysis purposes. The evaluation scheme addresses five areas of concern: availability of data-management features; availability of basic statistical-analysis features; ease of use; documentation; and quality of programs. Among six statistical packages reviewed by this process, CRISP is recommended as the most suitable package for clinical investigators to use for data-management and preliminary statistical-analysis purposes.     

Evaluating Microcomputer DBMSs

The improper use of commercial data base management systems (DBMSs) has been a major problem throughout the history of data base management. With the emergence of microcomputers, the selection of the appropriate DBMS for a user' s particular applications environment can be difficult. This column reviews and discusses approaches toward evaluating a DBMS and provides examples that illustrate the application of these approaches to microcomputer DBMSs. IS managers would benefit by following this column' s three-step evaluation framework     

DEVELOPMENT OF AN INTELLIGENT PRODUCT DESIGN SYSTEM: INTEGRATION STRATEGIES

Conventional computer-aided design (CAD) packages have drastically reduced the workload of the human designer and shortened the product design cycle. However, the degree of effort and volume of information required to use these tools limit their use to the later stages of design. Intelligent computer-aided design (ICAD) systems have sought to provide a more complete design tool to assist the designer in all phases of design. ICAD systems incorporate conventional CAD elements as well as knowledge engineering constructs. The level of integration between different components of an ICAD system determines its usefulness. Most commercial intelligent CAD packages are tied to a specific set of CAD tools, restricting their application domains. This dependence on specific software tools can be reduced by using general purpose modules to interface with available CAD packages. This paper discusses a method of introducing knowledge engineering technology to help develop an advanced intelligent product design system by integrating ICAD's Concept Modeller with SDRC's l-DEAS package for engineering product design. This integration is necessary because neither the Concept Modeller nor the I-DEAS package provides any unified design environment where users can access both symbolic and numerical design tools as needed to carry out design synthesis and analysis activities. Interfacing engineering design and knowledge processing together is not an easy task. The task is further complicated since it needs to be done only by those who have enough knowledge of both technologies, and also because it may result in reorganization of the traditional design process altogether. The proposed intelligent product design system uses artificial intelligence techniques to take care of human experts knowledge and it advocates the use of several commercial software packages that come from a variety of sources (and are proven to be robust) to perform design synthesis in a cost-efficient and timely manner. The technique described here is relatively easy to implement and is well suited to industrial needs.     

An overview of ontologies and data resources in medical domains

The ongoing rapid growth of diversity of data and their wide use to solve different complex tasks requires more sophisticated techniques of knowledge management and automated reasoning. Recent research efforts resulted in a significant number of semantic reference systems enriched with vocabularies, thesauri, terminologies, and ontologies. The extensive use of ontologies in the mainstream computer science has spread to many other branches of knowledge. These branches are included in a new approach to building modern intelligent systems, reusing and sharing pieces of declarative knowledge.In the meanwhile, a lot of effort has been made to produce standard ontologies for medicine and biology.This paper brings an overview and presentation of the state of the art in terminologies, ontologies and important resources/systems and tools for industry and academia in medicine and biology. It could be useful for researchers involved in multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary research areas and projects that include medicine, biology, and information technology.     

FOPS: A new framework for the optimization with variable number of dimensions

A single‐ and multi‐objective optimization package is presented and described in detail. It contains an ensemble of local and global optimization routines. Procedures controlling variable number of dimensions are implemented as well, which is a rare feature among optimization oriented packages. The package is provided as a MATLAB toolbox. It excels in versatility and extensibility, which is demonstrated on a series of examples covering classical electromagnetism and antenna design. It is taken for granted that defining parameters of the optimization method can be set prior to the simulation run. However, its effective performance can be changed during the optimization run thanks to the full control feature. Moreover, it opens new possibilities in merging various algorithms into hybrids, performing complex dynamic programming tasks, or exploiting third party software. These advantages render the package as a perfect tool to deal with nowadays challenging engineering tasks.