Future paths for integer programming and links to artificial intelligence

Integer programming has benefited from many innovations in models and methods. Some of the promising directions for elaborating these innovations in the future may be viewed from a framework that links the perspectives of artificial intelligence and operations research. To demonstrate this, four key areas are examined:

• 1.(1) controlled randomization,
• 2.(2) learning strategies,
• 3.(3) induced decomposition and
• 4.(4) tabu search. Each of these is shown to have characteristics that appear usefully relevant to developments on the horizon.

     

A consultancy service in industrial robotics: Methods and experience

In consideration of the growing importance of the application of ir in Austrian producing enterprises, the Austrian Federal Chamber of Commerce established a special department in 1982 with a view to:

• 1.(a) convince enterpreneurs of the advantages of using high technologies, such as microelectronics, industrial robots, flexible manufacturing systems, cad/cam etc. and
• 2.(b) assist and advise respective enterprises in making a decisioin as to whether and where to implement high technical products into their production and — in the affirmative — how to proceed further.

This contribution outlines various methods to ascertain most effectively

• •- where robots could be used in a certain enterprise
• •- how specific technical problems should be solved and
• •- the estimate of economy.

     

In brief

• Schlumberger Smart Cards and Terminals
• National Institute of Standards and Technology
• Communications Security Establishment
• Orga Kartensysteme
• Giesecke & Devrient
• INSIDE Contactless
• Epecom Technology & Distribution
• PT Adiwira Sembada
• Saflink
• European Telecommunications Standards Institute’s
• Sagem
• Gemplus
• Ingenico
• Korea Information & Communications Co
• TDK Semiconductor Corporation
• All American Semiconductor
• SchlumbergerSema
• Schlumberger Ltd
• Tribute Ltd
• Giesecke & Devrient
• INSIDE Contactless
• Beacon Technologies
• US Navy
• Transport for London
• Smart Frog Holdings
• Red Alert Group
• NEXT
• Trintech Group
• Smart Card Forum of China
• Beijing Commercial Administration
• Schlumberger
• Precise Biometrics
• Microexpert
• Visa International
• Applied DNA Sciences
• Applied DNA Sciences Europe Ltd
• Biowell Technology

     

In brief

• Datacard Group
• GlobalPlatform
• Atmel Corporation
• Giesecke & Devrient
• Siemens Business Services
• Macao Special Administrative Region
• Unibanka
• Austria Card
• ViVOtech
• Global Payments
• Schlumberger Smart Cards and Terminals
• Federation of Small Businesses
• Datacard Group
• Sony’s
• SSP Solutions
• SSP-Litronic
• Department of Defense
• Visa International
• Datacard Group
• Nissan Motor Co
• SchlumbergerSema
• Legic Identsystems
• Airbus
• Financial Supervisory Committee
• Societe Generale
• Schlumberger Smart Cards & Terminals
• Visa
• MasterCard
• Wal-Mart, The Limited, Sears Roebuck, Safeway, Circuit City
• Schlumberger Smart Cards and Terminals
• Eurosmart
• Micróelectronica Española
• Target Corporation
• Insight Consulting
• ActivCard
• Radio Frequency Investigation
• Bell ID
• Giesecke & Devrient
• OTI

     

In brief

Including brief stories on:

• Cubic
• Sharp Microelectronics
• MIPS Technologies
• Emosyn
• ATMI
• Theseus
• Bluefish
• Afghan Wireless Communication Company
• Ministry of Communications and Telephone Systems International
• Cubic Transportation Systems
• Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA)
• Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA)
• NDS Group
• DIRECTV
• JCB Co
• Convex Letter Card
• Toppan Printing Co
• Maxell
• Crédit Mutuel
• Multos
• MasterCard
• Schlumberger’s Smart Cards and Terminals
• Desjardins
• MagIC 9000
• RSA Security
• SCM Microsystems
• OTI
• ABSA Bank
• Standard Bank
• The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center
• First National Bank Omaha
• Oberthur Card Systems
• Sunbeach Communications
• HID Corporation
• Dorado Products

     

In Brief

• United States Patent and Trademark Office
• Datakey
• Sun Microsystems
• Departments of Defense
• Interior
• NASA
• Department of Defense
• Frost & Sullivan
• Transport for London
• Cubic Transportation Systems Ltd
• London Buses
• Transport for London
• EDS
• TranSys
• Microsoft
• Network Associates
• Visa
• Verisign
• Amazon
• eBay
• Coalition on Online Identity Theft
• Federal Trade Commission
• Emosyn
• ATMI
• Bioscrypt
• Little Rock National Airport
• HID’s
• General Services Administration
• BearingPoint
• Marks and Spencer
• Intercede’s
• Infineon Technologies
• Cubic Corporation
• LaserCard Systems Corporation
• Drexler Technology Corporation
• Schlumberger Smart Cards & Terminals
• Visa
• ISO
• ANSI
• Open Security Exchange
• IEEE Industry Standards and Technology Organization
• Computer Associates
• Gemplus
• HID
• Tyco Fire & Security’s Software House
• Hypercom Corporation
• MasterCard’s
• Fazoli’s
• National Bank of Serbia
• Giesecke & Devrient
• GlobalPlatform
• ICC Solutions

     

In Brief

• Ingenico
• Barclaycard
• Schlumberger Smart Cards & Terminals
• DCSSI
• Park City Mountain Resort
• Rapidtron
• Schlumberger Smart Cards & Terminals
• Zhejiang Unicom
• China Unicom
• Emosyn
• ATMI
• Gemplus
• Gartner Dataquest
• Gemplus
• Universal Kart
• Teknoloji Holding Group
• Texas Instruments RFid Systems
• National People’s Congress
• Bay Area Rapid Transit District
• San Francisco International Airport
• On Track Innovations
• Schlumberger Smart Cards & Terminals
• Bluefish Technologies
• First National Bank of South Africa
• FirstRand Bank
• Hypercom Corporation
• Grintek Telecom
• Australian Bankers’ Association
• Thales e-Security
• Keycorp
• Eftpos New Zealand
• ANZ Banking Group
• Provenco
• STMicroelectronics
• CSOB Bank
• Kredyt Bank
• VISA
• KBC Bank & Insurance Group
• Proton World International
• K&H
• Smart Card Alliance
• SCM Microsystems
• Bureau of Immigration
• Hansabank
• Setec
• Aconite
• International Turnkey Systems

     

Development of methods for modelling complex ecological systems

In modelling complex ecological systems

• 1.(i) a new theory of diffusion of non-conservative particles,
• 2.(ii) procedures for aggregation and averaging of ecosystem components with subsequent hierarchical decomposition and for
• 3.(iii) joint analysis of dynamic and logical informational models were developed and shortly described.

Numerical procedures support the elaboration of prognoses about the behaviour of men-controlled ecological systems. Some results in modelling the North-West Black Sea shelf ecosystem are demonstrated.     

Knowledge-based automatic dimensioning

A knowledge-based system, for automatically dimensioning a given 3D CAD model, is described. It was found that

• 1.1. dimensioning should preferably be based upon manufacturing features which are sets of surfaces in specified 3d relationships
• 2.2. several different kinds of rules are needed
  • 2.1.(a) for each feature, rules for generation of dimensions onto sets of surfaces comprising it
  • 2.2.(b) for each surface, the generation of linear dimension forms
  • 2.3.(c) for each such form, the instantiation of the dimension onto an explicit 3d linear element
  • 2.4.(d) the selection of 3d linear elements to express in 2d views, and the selection of views to use
  • 2.5.(e) the layout of the 2d dimensions generated.
• 3.3. a large amount of redundancy occurred, which had to be managed and retained, until final decision on selection and placement of 2D dimensions were made.

The system works by a sequence of applications of rules, which construct a set of prioritized goals connected by a network of redundancy relationships. Rules of types (a), (b) and (c) are successively applied, starting with the 3D model, to produce linear dimensioning goals, with redundancy relations among them. View selection and 2D layout involve rules of types (d) and (e), and a complex evaluation of each individual 2D dimensioning choice for each 3D linear dimensioning goal.The system was written in Prolog, using the UCLA CADLOG intelligent CAD system.     

The hydromagnetic flow of a dusty visco-elastic fluid between two infinite parallel plates

An initial value investigation is made on the motion of an incompressible visco-elastic (Rivlin-Ericksen) fluid with small particles between two infinite moving parallel plates in the presence of a transverse magnetic field. The flow is generated in the fluid particle system due to time dependent pressure gradient and also the motion of the plates in the presence of an external imposed transverse magnetic field. By Laplace transform technique, the velocity distribution and wall shear stress have been obtained for four different cases, when the pressure gradient and both the plate velocities are

• 1.(i) decreasing exponentially with time,
• 2.(ii) varying periodically with time,
• 3.(iii) impulsive type, and
• 4.(iv) acting for a finite time.

In each case, shear stresses at the boundary plates are also calculated.     

Research in software engineering: an analysis of the literature

In this paper, we examine the state of software engineering (SE) research from the point of view of the following research questions:

• 1.What topics do SE researchers address?
• 2.What research approaches do SE researchers use?
• 3.What research methods do SE researchers use?
• 4.On what reference disciplines does SE research depend?
• 5.At what levels of analysis do SE researchers conduct research?

To answer those questions, we examined 369 papers in six leading research journals in the SE field, answering those research questions for each paper.From that examination, we conclude that SE research is diverse regarding topic, narrow regarding research approach and method, inwardly-focused regarding reference discipline, and technically focused (as opposed to behaviorally focused) regarding level of analysis.We pass no judgment on the SE field as a result of these findings. Instead, we present them as groundwork for future SE research efforts.     

A very high speed Monte Carlo simulation on DAP

The Ising ferromagnet is a well-known model of a system of interacting spins which is amenable to Monte Carlo calculation involving:

• 1.(a) Boolean work and low precision counting;
• 2.(b) conditional choice of transition probabilities;
• 3.(c) high quality 24-bit random number generation (RNG);
• 4.(d) comparison of transition probabilities with random numbers.

An assembler implementation on the 64 × 64 DAP has achieved 42 × 10⁶ spin updates per second on a 64 × 64 × 64 problem using a standard DAP random number generator (RNG) that has recently been speeded up by a factor of eight. A later implementation involves:

• 1.(a) a new RNG that is an order of magnitude faster still, mainly achieved by producing data in greater bulk;
• 2.(b) a rewrite of the code including a form of parallel table look up for the transition probabilities;
• 3.(c) an increase in the problem size to 128 × 128 × 144. The performance is 218 × 10⁶ spin updates per second. This compares with 22 × 10⁶ on a CYBER 205 and 24 × 10⁶ on special purpose hardware built by a group in Santa Barbara, both on 64 × 64 × 64 problems.

Our results can be extrapolated to about 40 × 10⁶ spin updates per second for a possible 32 × 32 DAP which would be about two times faster than a CYBER 205 and two orders of magnitude cheaper.     

CALPHAD XXXIV 2005 conference summary

The thirty-fourth annual CALPHAD meeting was held at Kasteel Vaeshartelt, Maastricht, The Netherlands, on May 22–27, 2005. The local organizing committee consisted of Harry A.J. Oonk (chairman), Aad C.G. van Genderen, Michel H.G. Jacobs, Paul J. van Ekeren, and Marjan Hogenbirk (secretary); all employed at Utrecht University, Faculties of Chemistry and Geosciences.There were 134 delegates and 6 accompanying guests from 23 different countries. Oral communications (72) were presented in the following 10 sessions:

• 1.First Principles and Other Matters
• 2.High Pressure
• 3.Modeling and Experiments
• 4.CALPHAD Thermodynamics
• 5.Kinetic Matters
• 6.Miscellaneous (a collection of diverse subjects)
• 7.Experimental Thermodynamics
• 8.Nuclear Materials and Other Matters
• 9.Cluster Variation Subjects
• 10.CALPHAD Thermodynamics and Related Subjects.

Posters (60) were exposed in a continuous manner from Monday morning to Thursday evening. The posters were largely divided into two groups with one group closely related to Calphad Thermodynamics: first principles; thermodynamic phase diagram analysis; algorithms for Gibbs energy minimization; and kinetics, and another group covering a variety of subjects: teaching; statistical thermo-dynamics; experimental determination of phase equilibrium relationships; (micro)-calorimetry; molar volume; viscosity; waste heat; and subjects from the realm of molecular alloys.After Monday’s last lecture, a lively plenary discussion took place—some kind of a game between (traditional) CALPHAD thermodynamics and first principles. The discussion was continued on Tuesday evening. The present summary is organized into three sections

• I.Summaries of oral communications
• II.Titles of the exposed posters
• III.Summary of the discussions on Monday and Tuesday evening.

     

High integrity software development: process and tool issues

YSE and BAe Defence have recently completed an unclassified study for MoD (PE) specifically concerned with high integrity software development process and tool issues. The overall objective of the project was to produce guidance for MoD project managers on the sorts of processes and toolsets which their suppliers should be expected to deploy on projects being conducted in the context of Interim Defense Standard (IDS) 00-55 and IDS 00-56. A wide-ranging survey of industrial practice underpinned the project.This paper reports the main areas of work of the project and its results. The topics covered include:

• •⊗ ideal high integrity software development including tool support requirements;
• •⊗ a review of current high integrity software development practice;
• •⊗ available tool support (COTS and proprietary);
• •⊗ a minimum acceptable process and associated tool support;
• •⊗ process and toolset hazard analysis;
• •⊗ process and toolset safety cases;
• •⊗ building better toolsets;
• •⊗ process and toolset assessment.

     

Deep Blue

Deep Blue is the chess machine that defeated then-reigning World Chess Champion Garry Kasparov in a six-game match in 1997. There were a number of factors that contributed to this success, including:

• •a single-chip chess search engine,
• •a massively parallel system with multiple levels of parallelism,
• •a strong emphasis on search extensions,
• •a complex evaluation function, and
• •effective use of a Grandmaster game database.

This paper describes the Deep Blue system, and gives some of the rationale that went into the design decisions behind Deep Blue.     

On modularity in infinitary term rewriting

We study modular properties in strongly convergent infinitary term rewriting. In particular, we show that:

• •Confluence is not preserved across direct sum of a finite number of systems, even when these are non-collapsing.
• •Confluence modulo equality of hypercollapsing subterms is not preserved across direct sum of a finite number of systems.
• •Normalization is not preserved across direct sum of an infinite number of left-linear systems.
• •Unique normalization with respect to reduction is not preserved across direct sum of a finite number of left-linear systems.

Together, these facts constitute a radical departure from the situation in finitary term rewriting. Positive results are:

• •Confluence is preserved under the direct sum of an infinite number of left-linear systems iff at most one system contains a collapsing rule.
• •Confluence is preserved under the direct sum of a finite number of non-collapsing systems if only terms of finite rank are considered.
• •Top-termination is preserved under the direct sum of a finite number of left-linear systems.
• •Normalization is preserved under the direct sum of a finite number of left-linear systems.

All of the negative results above hold in the setting of weakly convergent rewriting as well, as do the positive results concerning modularity of top-termination and normalization for left-linear systems.     

A heuristic explanation of Batcher's Baffler

Batcher's Baffler—so named by David Gries—is a sorting algorithm that is of interest because many of its ‘comparison swaps’ can be executed concurrently. It is also of interest because it used to be hard to explain.This note explains Batcher's Baffler by designing it. Besides including all heuristics, it has two distinguishing features, both contributing to its clarity and brevity:

• 1.(0) the (little) theory the algorithm relies upon is dealt with in isolation;
• 2.(1) by suitable abstractions, all case analyses have been removed from the argument.

     

A software development productivity model for MIS environments

A major portion of MIS department costs are incurred in developing systems. There is a great need for models that can be used with confidence:

• 1.(1) to predict software development time and cost.
• 2.(2) to explore software development schedule options.
• 3.(3) to use as a basis for control over the development process.

The goal of this research was to determine a model that could be used to understand the productivity relationships in the MIS environment. Using the work of Fred Brooks as a basis, three empirical studies have been carried out to determine appropriate models for MIS development. The productivity model developed was able to explain over 70% of the productivity variation found in Cobol, Pick/Basic, and Focus implementation environments. This model could be used as a basis for project planning and control for different organizations, hardware environments, operating systems, or development methodologies. The model has been extended in the Focus environment to include additional factors such as team attitudes and experience. This extension has suggested important interactions that are now in need of further research.     

Inferential control applications

In high-order, long-dead-time processes, inferential control systems will generally outperform conventional feedback control systems. To implement inferential control the user must know how to

• •—tune the inferential controller on line,
• •—avoid control degradation due to saturation of the control effort,
• •—smooth manual-automatic switching,
• •—design a cascade control system.

In addition, the user should be able to determine whether the benefits of inferential control justify its selection over a PID control system. This report presents ways to meet these requirements and applies the methods to an industrial autoclave plant and to a laboratory heat exchange system.