Graphics facilities for computer-aided architectural design

An account is given of the graphics facilities developed by ABACUS for use on an inexpensive storage tube display terminal connected to a timesharing computer. The facilities allow programs to display simple pictures and menus of commands on the terminal as well as to manipulate graphically the geometrcal information common to many schematic design problems found in architecture.     

A microcomputer database system for facilities design

A data base management system which is dedicated to plant layout type data, and should be useful to the practicing industrial engineer, is presented. The data items utilized in the data base for this microcomputer software represent only a minimal subset of the data which one would want for the creation of a proper, industrial facility design; however, they were felt to represent a good starting point for the creation of a microcomputer data base system which would aid a layout engineer. The Knowledgeman software (Micro Data Base Systems, Inc.) was used for this project; it consists of a relational database and an electronic spreadsheet. Two plant layout examples are presented to demonstrate the use of the software.     

An EWMA chart for monitoring the process standard deviation when parameters are estimated

The EWMA chart for the standard deviation is a useful tool for monitoring the variability of a process quality characteristic. The performance of this chart is usually evaluated under the assumption of known parameters. However, in practice, process parameters are estimated from an in-control Phase I data set. A modified EWMA control chart is proposed for monitoring the standard deviation when the parameters are estimated. The Run Length properties of this chart are studied and its performance is evaluated by comparing it with the same chart but with process parameters assumed known.     

Mean analysis of an online algorithm for the vertex cover problem

In 2005, Demange and Paschos proposed in [M. Demange, V.Th. Paschos, On-line vertex-covering, Theoret. Comput. Sci. 332 (2005) 83-108] an online algorithm (noted LR here) for the classical vertex cover problem. They shown that, for any graph of maximum degree Δ, LR constructs a vertex cover whose size is at most Δ times the optimal one (this bound is tight in the worst case).Very recently, two of the present authors have shown in [F. Delbot, C. Laforest, A better list heuristic for vertex cover, Inform. Process. Lett. 107 (2008) 125-127] that LR has interesting properties (it is a good “list algorithm” and it can easily be distributed). In addition, LR has good experimental behavior in spite of its Δ approximation (or competitive) ratio and the fact that it can be executed without the knowledge of the full instance at the beginning.In this paper we analyze it deeper and we show that LR has good “average” performances: we prove that its mean approximation ratio is strictly less than 2 for any graph and is equal to 1+e−2≈1.13 in paths. LR is then a very interesting algorithm for constructing small vertex covers, despite its bad worst case behavior.     

Analysis and design for a standard transport protocol

In the development of computer networks, the trend towards open systems interconnection is creating the need for standard protocols. The transport level protocols published by ECMA and ISO are supported by the Department of Industry as ‘intercept’ standards to be adopted by the computing community as a whole. This paper presents the published standards interpreted as a set of state transition diagrams. This reinterpretation is a necessary prerequisite to the method of implementation which is based on a finite state automaton. We summarize the advantages of a software ‘funnel machine’ to effect the state transitions during the execution of the transport protocol server. The same analysis and design technique has been used successfully to implement network and link protocol handlers. We recommend its adoption on a variety of machines in any programming language to ensure a relatively short development period and to achieve compatability among the different classes: 0, 1, 2, 3 and 4, of the transport protocol.     

Automatic computation of speckle standard deviation in SAR images

Being a coherent reception system, Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) sensors are highly liable to speckle noise effect, which masks details and patterns in the image, and therefore, degrades interpretation. Speckling may be reduced by applying filtering techniques to SAR multilook images. The major problem that arises from this type of method is the estimation of input parameters: sliding window size and speckle standard deviation. The present paper describes a manual and two automatic methods devised to estimate speckle standard deviation based on the texture concept, in order to extract homogenous regions. The automatic method were specially developed to improve results obtained with the manual one, and the so-called least-squares approach and mean approach were considered. The mean approach was introduced as an alternative to the least-squares approach. It performs better in terms of computing time and disk space use, and even shows a slightly higher accuracy when tested against artificially speckled images. Manual and automatic methods were applied as an example using ERS-1/SAR one-look and three-look images with different features, obtained over several Austral and Antartic regions of Argentina. Results show that the automatic method is a valuable tool for estimating speckle standard deviation, being accurate, less tedious, and preventing typical human errors associated with manual tasks.     

A stochastic estimation problem at aeromagnetometer deviation compensation

A formulation of the problem of magnitometer deviation compensation occurring at aeromagnetic survey is considered in the form of a standard stochastic estimation problem. A specific feature of this approach is the introduction of the model of a geomagnetic field anomaly. The parameters of the stochastic model are selected basing on spectral and variance analysis of the aeromagnetic survey data. Normalization of the problem parameters is made; this makes it possible to estimate the accuracy of compensation and conduct a necessary decomposition. The posed stochastic estimation problem is solved by the method of Kalman filtering.     

A parallel ordering problem in facilities layout

In this paper, we study a problem that occurs in the row layout of facilities. Among n facilities, suppose that there are t   facilities with some characteristic in common so that they should be arranged along one row, leaving the remainder (n−t$n-t$) facilities to be arranged on a parallel row. The objective is to order the facilities in the two rows such that some cost function is minimized. This problem is called the parallel row ordering problem (PROP). The PROP is a generalization of the single row facility layout problem (SRFLP). Here, a mixed integer programming (MIP) formulation of the PROP is presented which extends a MIP formulation of the SRFLP. We show that a PROP with n facilities may be solved faster than a SRFLP with n facilities. Theoretical and experimental comparisons of the SRFLP and the PROP formulations are presented.     

Planar expropriation problem with non-rigid rectangular facilities

In this paper, we introduce the planar expropriation problem with non-rigid rectangular facilities. The facilities considered in this study are two-dimensional facilities of rectangular shape. Moreover, we allow the facility dimensions to be decision variables and introduce the concept of non-rigid facilities. Based on the geometric properties of such facilities, we developed a new formulation for this continuous covering location model which does not require employing distance measures. This model is intended to determine the location and formation of facilities simultaneously. For solving this new model, we proposed a continuous branch-and-bound framework utilizing linear approximations for the tradeoff curve associated with the facility formation alternatives. Further, we developed new problem generation and bounding strategies suitable for our particular problem structure. Computational experience shows that the branch-and-bound procedure we developed performs better than conventional mixed-integer nonlinear programming solvers BARON and SBB for solving this particular location model.     

Assessment techniques,database design and software facilities for thermodynamics and diffusion

The purpose of this article is to give a set of recommendations to producers of assessed thermodynamic data, who may be involved in either the critical evaluation of limited chemical systems or the creation and dissemination of larger thermodynamic databases. Also, it is hoped that reviewers and editors of scientific publications in this field will find some of the information useful. Good practice in the assessment process is essential, particularly as datasets from many different sources may be combined together into a single database. With this in mind, we highlight some problems that can arise during the assessment process and we propose a quality assurance procedure. It is worth mentioning at this point, that the provision of reliable assessed thermodynamic data relies heavily on the availability of high quality experimental information. The different software packages for thermodynamics and diffusion are described here only briefly.     

An orthogonal systolic design for the assignment problem

A systolic array for the solution of the assignment problem is presented. The algorithm requires O(n²) time on an orthogonally connected array of (n + 2) * (n + 2) cells consisting of simple adders and control logic. The design is area efficient and incorporates the new concept of a Systolic Control Ring (SCR) to generate the necessary systolic wavefronts in any orientation within the design, while special cells are positioned only on the periphery of the design. The design was simulated and tested by an OCCAM program.     

Backbone analysis and algorithm design for the quadratic assignment problem

As the hot line in NP-hard problems research in recent years, backbone analysis is crucial for phase transition, hardness, and algorithm design. Whereas theoretical analysis of backbone and its applications in algorithm design are still at a begin- ning state yet, this paper took the quadratic assignment problem （QAP） as a case study and proved by theoretical analysis that it is NP-hard to find the backbone, i.e., no algorithm exists to obtain the backbone of a QAP in polynomial time. Results of this paper showed that it is reasonable to acquire approximate backbone by inter- section of local optimal solutions. Furthermore, with the method of constructing biased instances, this paper proposed a new meta-heuristic -- biased instance based approximate backbone （BI-AB）, whose basic idea is as follows： firstly, construct a new biased instance for every QAP instance （the optimal solution of the new instance is also optimal for the original one）; secondly, the approximate backbone is obtained by intersection of multiple local optimal solutions computed by some existing algorithm; finally, search for the optimal solutions in the reduced space by fixing the approximate backbone. Work of the paper enhanced the research area of theoretical analysis of backbone. The meta-heuristic proposed in this paper provided a new way for general algorithm design of NP-hard problems as well.     

A novel face super resolution approach for noisy images using contour feature and standard deviation prior

Multimedia Tools and Applications - Face Super Resolution (FSR) is to infer high resolution (HR) face images from given low resolution (LR) face images with the help of HR/LR training examples. The...     

Relationship between standard control problem and model-matching problem without coprime factorizability

We present the equivalence between a standard control problem and a model-matching problem without coprime factorizability of plants. This equivalence is well-known if every stabilizable plant admit a doubly coprime factorization. The result of this note does not require the coprime factorizability of plants.     

Static and dynamic problem formulations for design optimization

This paper concerns an issue that may arise in design optimization of dynamical systems that possess multiple equilibrium points. If one considers only such points, it is possible to pose optimization problems in which the state problem is treated as a static problem. This is attractive as it reduces the computational cost compared to approaches which account for the entire state trajectory. However, if the system has multiple equilibria, it could happen that the equilibrium point attained when the system was optimized has only a small region of attraction. This means that in order to attain the desired state, the system must be initialized in its close vicinity, something which may be difficult in practise. In the paper we demonstrate this issue by considering design optimization of Neuro-Mechanical Shape Memory Devices (NMSMDs), a type of mechatronic systems that take on prescribed shapes when subjected to certain input stimuli introduced by the authors in an earlier paper. The conclusion is that although the static problem formulation considered has some attractive features, the existence of multiple equilibria for the governing equations of NMSMDs seems to necessitate the use of dynamic problem formulations.     

Ant colony optimization algorithm for the Euclidean location-allocation problem with unknown number of facilities

This paper addresses the Euclidean location-allocation problem with an unknown number of facilities, and an objective of minimizing the fixed and transportation costs. This is a NP-hard problem and in this paper, a three-stage ant colony optimization (ACO) algorithm is introduced and its performance is evaluated by comparing its solutions to the solutions of genetic algorithms (GA). The results show that ACO outperformed GA and reached better solutions in a faster computational time. Furthermore, ACO was tested on the relaxed version of the problem where the number of facilities is known, and compared to existing methods in the literature. The results again confirmed the superiority of the proposed algorithm.     

A design for DNA computation of the OneMax problem

 Elements of evolutionary computation and molecular biology are combined to design a DNA evolutionary computation. The traditional test problem for evolutionary computation, OneMax problem is addressed. The key feature is the physical separation of DNA strands consistent with OneMax “fitness.”     

Blind audio watermarking algorithm based on DCT,linear regression and standard deviation

This paper proposes a blind audio watermarking algorithm to embed data and extract them by changing the Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT) coefficients. The key idea is to divide the selected frequency band of DCT into short frames and change the samples of each frame based on the watermark bits that are embedded in. The proposed idea uses linear regression and standard deviation to extract watermark bits. The experimental results show that the method has a high capacity about 3000 bps data payload, without significant perceptual distortion. Moreover, this idea provides robustness against common signal processing attacks such as Additive White Gaussian Noise, Resampling, Re-quantizing and Echo.     

System-level design language standard needed

The combination of SystemVerilog, SystemC, and the property specification language (PSL) promises a powerful and flexible foundation for design. Together, these standards address clear needs for emerging software-rich designs; critical capabilities for these standards include advanced verification features such as solvers and constrained random testing. This combination of standards brings powerful assertion capabilities that, with PSL, provide a bridge to formal verification and the ability to apply assertions across multiple design languages.