From battlefields to urban grids: New research challenges in ad hoc wireless networks

There has been much talk over the past two decades about commercialization of the mobile ad hoc network (MANET) technology. Potential ad hoc network applications with some commercial appeal are now finally emerging, “drafted” by the enormously successful wireless LAN technology. Closely coupled to commercial applications and critically dependent on commercial ad hoc networks will be the “pervasive computing” applications. Since military and civilian emergency MANETs have been around for over three decades, and since the Government has continuously supported MANET research for as many years, it may seem natural to assume that all the research has already been done and that commercial MANETs can be deployed by simply leveraging the military and civilian research results. Unfortunately, there is a catch. Commercial MANETs (and therefore pervasive computing applications) will evolve in a way totally different from their military counterparts. Most importantly, they will start small, and will initially be tethered to the Internet. They will be extremely cost-aware. They will also need to cater to a variety of different applications. This is in sharp contrast with the large scale, autonomous, special purpose and cost insensitive military networks. In this paper we review a typical “battlefield” MANET application and contrast it to two emerging commercial MANET scenarios—the urban vehicle grid and the Campus network. We compare characteristics and design goals and make the case for new research to help kick off commercial MANETs. In particular we argue that P2P technology will be critical in the early evolution of commercial MANETs and identify research directions for P2P MANETs.     

Nonlinear input/output modelling

This paper gives a highly abbreviated overview of some of the key issues in empirical nonlinear modelling for chemical process applications. This task is complicated by the inherent nature of nonlinearity: the term describes a class of systems by the one feature they lack. In fact, this division — linear vs. nonlinear — suggests a ‘unity’ or ‘homogeneity’ of the class of nonlinear systems that does not exist. Consequently, this review will focus on specific sub-classes of nonlinear models that have analytically useful structural characteristics, and comparisons will be made both between these classes and with the more familiar linear models. Length limitations restrict these discussions somewhat, but it is hoped that the range of examples will be great enough to demonstrate how nonlinear model identification is both similar to and different from linear model indentification. The general conclusion of this paper is that nonlinear input/output modelling is a vitally important practical art with many unresolved issues; the principal objective of this paper is to elucidate some of these issues.     

Relations between Gold-style learning and query learning

Different formal learning models address different aspects of human learning. Below we compare Gold-style learning—modelling learning as a limiting process in which the learner may change its mind arbitrarily often before converging to a correct hypothesis—to learning via queries—modelling learning as a one-shot process in which the learner is required to identify the target concept with just one hypothesis. In the Gold-style model considered below, the information presented to the learner consists of positive examples for the target concept, whereas in query learning, the learner may pose a certain kind of queries about the target concept, which will be answered correctly by an oracle (called teacher). Although these two approaches seem rather unrelated at first glance, we provide characterisations of different models of Gold-style learning (learning in the limit, conservative inference, and behaviourally correct learning) in terms of query learning. Thus we describe the circumstances which are necessary to replace limit learners by equally powerful one-shot learners. Our results are valid in the general context of learning indexable classes of recursive languages. This analysis leads to an important observation, namely that there is a natural query learning type hierarchically in-between Gold-style learning in the limit and behaviourally correct learning. Astonishingly, this query learning type can then again be characterised in terms of Gold-style inference.     

SweetWiki: A semantic wiki

Everyone agrees that user interactions and social networks are among the cornerstones of “Web 2.0”. Web 2.0 applications generally run in a web browser, propose dynamic content with rich user interfaces, offer means to easily add or edit content of the web site they belong to and present social network aspects. Well-known applications that have helped spread Web 2.0 are blogs, wikis, and image/video sharing sites; they have dramatically increased sharing and participation among web users. It is possible to build knowledge using tools that can help analyze users’ behavior behind the scenes: what they do, what they know, what they want. Tools that help share this knowledge across a network, and that can reason on that knowledge, will lead to users who can better use the knowledge available, i.e., to smarter users. Wikipedia, a wildly successful example of web technology, has helped knowledge-sharing between people by letting individuals freely create and modify its content. But Wikipedia is designed for people—today's software cannot understand and reason on Wikipedia's content. In parallel, the “semantic web”, a set of technologies that help knowledge-sharing across the web between different applications, is starting to gain attraction. Researchers have only recently started working on the concept of a “semantic wiki”, mixing the advantages of the wiki and the technologies of the semantic web. In this paper we will present a state-of-the-art of semantic wikis, and we will introduce SweetWiki, an example of an application reconciling two trends of the future web: a semantically augmented web and a web of social applications where every user is an active provider as well as a consumer of information. SweetWiki makes heavy use of semantic web concepts and languages, and demonstrates how the use of such paradigms can improve navigation, search, and usability.     

Ecology of technology: A perspective

Science and technology are on trial due to the rapid changes — neither university nor science lead developments in technology, the most advanced military technology has lost linkages with industries, the widened North-South gaps — they are all sources of crisis in the global ecological balance. The Euro-centric universalism is useless to solve the global technology problems.     

Effective and Efficient Compilation of Run-Time Generics in Java

After several years from Sun Microsystems' call-for-proposals for adding generics to the Java Programming Language, JDK 1.5 will be finally shipped with a compile-time support for generics. However, differently e.g. from the current implementation of .NET Common Language Runtime, run-time support to generics — also commonly referred to as reification of type parameters — is not provided, leading to a number of well-known inadequacies which might potentially be critical. In this paper we present the EGO compiler (Exact Generics on Demand). This is the result of a project developed in collaboration with Sun Microsystems as an effort to provide run-time generics in a smooth way, without requiring any change on the JVM or on any other run-time support. The core solution is a sophisticated translation of code based on the type-passing style, where run-time type information is automatically created on a by-need basis, limiting as most as possible run-time overhead while retaining interoperability with legacy Java code.We present the main aspects of this development, from basic design to implementation and deployment issues. Many relevant aspects that typical raise when implementing advanced type systems over a mainstream programming language are discussed, shading light to some effective implementation techniques.     

A scientific psychologistic foundation for theories of meaning

I propose, develop and defend the view that theories of meaning — for instance, a theory specifying the logical form or truth conditions of natural language sentences — should be naturalized to scientific psychological inquiry. This involves both psychologism — the claim that semantics characterizes psychological states — and scientific naturalism — the claim that semantics will depend on the data and theories of scientific psychology. I argue that scientific psychologism is more plausible than the traditional alternative, the view that a theory of meaning is a priori. After defending scientific psychologism against several objections, I offer a speculative proposal that shows how a theory of meaning can be integrated into scientific psychology.This essay is a descendant of part of my MIT doctoral dissertation. Thanks to Ned Block, Noam Chomsky, Jim Higginbotham and Bob Stalnaker for their comments and criticisms on earlier versions, and for helpful discussion of the issues.     

Why technology matters to writing: A cyberwriter’s tale

Technology does indeed matter to writing—and in significant ways. But how it matters can vary, depending on the particular technology, the habits and attitudes of the individual writer, and the context of learning and use. Here I employ a personal narrative (“a cyberwriter’s tale”) to track my development as a writer over time—from handwriting to typewriting to cyberwriting—and to show how each new writing technology influenced my practices and products. I argue finally for a cyborgian, posthumanist view of writing technologies. Such a view does not isolate the technological tool as an abstracted machine apart from human use, but insists on defining technology as use—as the human and machine working in concert (joined at the interface) and writing in a particular social, political, and rhetorical context.     

Nonstationary bounds of the characteristics of markovian renewal processes in classes of “aging” distributions

Nonstationary bounds of the characteristics of one class of renewal processes with Markovian increments — the so-called Sedyakin processes — are obtained in the class of IFR, DFR, NBU, and NWU distributions. Applied aspects of the mathematical results are examined.Translated from Kibernetika, No. 4, pp. 74–78, 88, July–August, 1990.     

Observation levels and units of time: A critical analysis of the main assumption of the theory of the artificial

Negrotti's theory of the artificial is based on the fundamental assumption that the human being cannot select more than one observation level per unit of time. Since this assumption has important consequences for the theory of knowledge — knowledge cannot be synthesised but only further differentiated — its plausibility is tested against two aspects that characterise any theory of knowledge: knowledge production and knowledge application. The way in which the human being produces and applies knowledge is analysed, and a model of mind based on the transitoriness of its elements is proposed. The analysis confirms that only one observation level can be selected per unit of time.     

Planetary exploration by robotic aerovehicles

Planetary aerobots are a new type of telerobotic science platform that can fly and navigate in a dynamic 3-dimensional atmospheric environment, thus enabling the global in situ exploration of planetary atmospheres and surfaces. Aerobots are enabled by a new concept in planetary balloon altitude control, developed at JPL, which employs reversible-fluid changes to permit repeated excursions in altitude. The essential physics and thermodynamics ofreversible-fluid altitude control have been demonstrated in a series of altitude-control experiments conducted in the Earth's atmosphere, which are described. Aerobot altitude-control technology will be important in the exploration of seven planets and satellites in our solar system. Three of these objects—Venus, Mars, and the Saturnian satellite Titan—have accessible solid surfaces and atmospheres dominated by the dense gases nitrogen or carbon dioxide. They will be explored with aerobots using helium or hydrogen as their primary means of buoyancy. The other four planets—Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune—have deep atmospheres that are predominantly hydrogen. It may be possible to explore these atmospheres with aerobots inflated with atmospheric gas that is then radiatively heated from the hotter gaseous depths below. To fulfill their potential, aerobots to explore the planets will need autonomous state estimators to guide their observations and provide information to the altitude-control systems. The techniques of acquiring these data remotely are outlined. Aerobots will also use on board altitude control and navigation systems to execute complex flight paths including descent to the surface and exploiting differential wind velocities to access different latitude belts. Approaches to control of these systems are examined. The application of aerobots to Venus exploration is explored in some detail: The most ambitious mission described, the Venus Flyer Robot (VFR), would have the capability to make repeated short excursions to the high-temperature surface environment of Venus to acquire data and then return to the Earth-like upper atmosphere to communicate and recool its electronic systems. Finally a Planetary Aerobot Testbed is discussed which will conduct Earth atmospheric flights to validate autonomous-state-estimator techniques and flight-path-control techniques needed for future planetary missions.     

Results of the Eureka FAMOS research programme: A European contribution to manufacturing technology

Market competition is leading to direct confrontation between products coming from the main manufacturing areas: Europe, the U.S.A. and Asia, where Japan is leading. For Europe to maintain and improve its role, it is important to develop “winning” products. This requires an advanced, technology based industry (secondary sector) and a highly effective research and innovation network (quaternarium), developing new design tools and new configurations for products and production systems. To foster and strengthen an advanced industry and a highly effective quaternarium, Europe has launched various initiatives, from EEC Programmes to the Eureka initiative.In this paper the contribution of the Eureka FAMOS projects is assessed by using a model linking the research innovation cycle, “actors” (companies and research institutions) and activation mechanisms (programmes and initiatives). With the Eureka FAMOS Umbrella Project acting as an activation mechanism, the analysis of the specific FAMOS projects carried out through MONITECH—an assessment activity set up by IMU-CNR—shows how the “actors” (companies and research institutions) have reacted and launched specific projects (36 at an estimated cost of 600 MECU), in 17 industrial sectors, leading to new production paradigms (production systems and related technologies). Considering the results already achieved (pilot production systems and technologies) the Eureka FAMOS Research Programme may be seen as a relevant European initiative in manufacturing technology.The synergy which the Eureka FAMOS Programme is starting to provide with EEC Programmes will give the European research network and industry further benefits.     

A Data Model for Data Integration

Data integration systems provide a uniform query interface (UQI) to multiple, autonomous data sources [Alon Y. Halevy. Answering queries using views: A survey. The VLDB Journal, 10(4):270–294, 2001]. This paper presents the universal data model (UDM) that captures the semantically salient aspects of relational, entity-relationship, and XML data models. As a consequence, UDM — including its accompanying query language — provides a simple and elegant UQI for integrating data represented in some of the most widely adopted data models.     

Opportunities and barriers to portable document scanning

While electronic documents are increasingly prevalent in the workplace there are many texts — such as books, magazines and letters — which are not easily available in an electronic form. Since many electronic document systems depend upon documents existing exclusively, or at least predominantly, in electronic form, this suggests an opportunity for document scanning technology. However, conventional scanners are limited by their large size and relatively cumbersome usage. Using a diary-based methodology, this study investigated the use of a new portable document scanning technology. In this paper we explore the need for document scanning, and how this portable device was used by our study participants. Document scanning is shown to be a goal-driven activity — individuals did not scan just to have an electronic version of a document, but to do something with electronic documents, in particular, distributing documents to others, archiving documents and reusing documents. The small design of this device also enabled a mode of usage distinct from that of conventional flarbed scanners. Its size meant that the device was a personal, rather than shared technology; that it could be easily stored when not being used; and that the scanner could be carried to the materials to be scanned, rather than the materials brought to the scanner. We discuss this interaction with the local environment as a case of local mobility — this is less to do with portability but with how a device's small size can make it fit better into work environments.     

On the information modeling for the electronic operation of supply chains: A maritime case study

Nowadays, the manufacturing industry is adopting modern information technologies in order to optimize their business process and to achieve integration with supply chain partners that are geographically dispersed, by expanding the physical limits of their business globally. The growth of the World Wide Web and the advantages of the software technologies arising from it render this goal possible. This paper discusses how modern information technology, particularly the ISO 10303—STEP and eXtensible Markup Language—XML, can be utilized jointly to support the communication of different partners. An approach to support enterprise operation through efficient data exchanges, by adopting modern data modeling techniques for integration among partners worldwide and using the web as a communication layer, is described. The paper deals particularly with the ship repair industry as a case study of these problems and suggests a feasible solution.     

Making e-Government systems workable: Exploring the evolution of frames

As with other IT projects, implementing workable e-Government systems requires bringing together different stakeholders and bridging their perspectives during implementation. These perspectives often take the form of competing technology frames consisting of differentiated beliefs, interests, technology evaluation routines and artifact characteristics that need to be recognized and reconciled in order to make e-Government systems workable. Prior research, while recognizing the importance of frame evolution in making systems workable, has rarely described the underlying processes. This paper builds on a 10-year e-Government implementation to describe and analyze the processes of frame evolution—namely, frame differentiation, frame adaptation, and frame stabilization—that can help translate and reconcile competing frames into a truce frame. The examined properties of these specific processes are described and their dynamics are analyzed, thereby extending the e-Government implementation literature through a deeper understanding of frame evolution processes.     

Applying New JIT—Toyota's global production strategy: Epoch-making innovation of the work environment

In order to strengthen management technology strategy, the author has recently developed a new management technology principle, New JIT, based on TMS, TDS, TPS and TQM-S. In developing “Global Marketing” that can win the global competition for quality and cost, the key for domestic and foreign companies is to successfully achieve “Global Production” that enables simultaneous production start-up (the same quality and production at optimal locations) throughout the world. This paper analyzes and proves the significance of strategically applying New JIT—a global production strategy activity called AWD6P/J—for epoch-making innovation of the work environment, as verified at Toyota. While many vehicle assembly shops depend on a young, male workforce, innovation in optimizing an aging workforce is a necessary prerequisite of TPS—a production strategy of New JIT. Elements necessary for enhancing work value and motivation, and work energy, including working conditions and work environment (amenities and ergonomics), were investigated through objective survey and analyzed from labor science perspectives.